A purple and white striped beanie hat with green accents. A yellow cap with a matching pom-pom on top. A red beanie with black trim and an olive green beret.
Those are among the couple dozen hats a group of women have knitted or crocheted over the past several weeks around a long table in the Ed Brown Center for Active Adults in Rancho Bernardo Community Park.
The hats will be going to TACO — Third Avenue Charitable Organization — which will include them in bags filled with toiletries, gloves and other items distributed to homeless individuals during the holidays, said Chris Bodle, who co-chairs Knitting Club with fellow RB resident Sue Gupta.
“We wanted to have seniors come out of their homes to do crafts, work on projects and meet other people for socialization,” Gupta said about the club’s formation last November.
There is no fee to Knitting Club and its do not need to the Ed Brown Center. They also can work on personal projects rather than making hats for the homeless.
“Knitting reduces stress, anxiety, improves cognitive function and stimulates the brain. It improves confidence,” Gupta said. “Knitting is the new name for yoga because it is therapeutic. … For our hands it is about kinetics. It works our brains … (because) we have to the stitches.”
The women gather from 2 to 4 p.m. each Friday. Sometimes there are a handful. Other times up to 12, according to Bodle. They come whenever available.
Not all are making hats. Rancho Bernardo resident Yvonne Soffer, the group’s oldest member at age 89, was making a light blue scarf last Friday just to do something different.
“I wanted to make a scarf for a woman,” Soffer said, while wrapping her work around her neck to check out her progress. She deemed it halfway done based on the length.
Newcomers — including men — are always welcome, even if they do not know the difference between a knitting needle or crochet hook, or haven’t picked up either in a few decades or so. There is always someone willing to teach new or complicated stitches, Bodle said.
Highland Valley resident Barbara Chapman said she ed earlier this year because she wanted to get back into crocheting.
“I had not done it since high school,” said Chapman, 83. “I wanted to learn … and am enjoying it. It is pretty easy to get back into it.”
Lynn Wolsey, a Poway resident, agreed that knitting and crocheting are easy.
“It’s not rocket science. If you have a desire, you can learn,” she said.
As for coming back after a long hiatus, Wolsey said, “It is like riding a bike, all muscle memory. The beauty of this is it is extremely portable.”
Wolsey said she prefers crocheting over knitting because if she drops a stitch it is easier to fix than if she does the same while knitting.
The two art forms are similar.
“Knitting and crochet go hand-in-hand,” Gupta said. “If you have a crochet pattern you can (use) it for knitting too.”
Pam Smith, a Poway resident, stopped by last Friday after reading a news brief about the group in the Feb. 27 Poway News Chieftain.
“I like to knit for a good cause and it is something I can do at home, when I have five or 10 minutes,” Smith said. “I have leftover yarn and wanted to come get a pattern.”
Rancho Bernardo residents Beatrice and Richard Rotzow said they also read about the group and its need for yarn donations in the News Journal. They came with three large trash bags filled with skeins of yarn in all colors. The skeins were separated based on yarn size.
“I wanted to clean out my house, because I do not knit as much as I used to,” said Beatrice Rotzow, estimating she had around four dozen skeins among the bags. “I knitted hats for Gently Hugged and the American Cancer Society. I really enjoyed it.”
Bodle and Gupta said the various yarn thicknesses that the Rotzows donated are perfect for hats. Having partially-used skeins or balls of yarn are great because they often mix colors when making them.
“We do not need the whole ball,” Bodle said. “There are often leftovers from projects.”
Bodle said the partnership with TACO came about because her church volunteers with its downtown San Diego homeless outreach events, such as serving dinners. If the group meets its 240 hats goal before year’s end, she said additional hats will be made for other similar organizations.
Gupta added that they will also be making small Santa decorations to give to Brown Center during the holidays.
RB resident Janet Leo said she finds crocheting “very relaxing. I do not have to think too much … and can do it while watching TV.”
Several of the club said they plan to work on hats at home, but come to the Friday gatherings for the camaraderie and socialization.
Anyone interested in ing can call Gupta at 858-205-9728 for details or stop by the Ed Brown Center between 2 and 4 p.m. any Friday.
Yarn donations may be left at the center’s front desk on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The center is at 18402 W. Bernardo Drive in Rancho Bernardo Community Park.
