Youth Project: Mission San Jose High School Fremont, CA Key Club
From mid January to mid February, MSJ Key Club and MSJ iKnit organized a “Scarves for Support” service event, in which members participated in a knitting introductory meeting, a virtual meeting, and a brief in-person lunch meeting, from which they were able to learn the basics of knitting a scarf. In the end, 21 scarves were completed, featuring both basic designs and unique twists, such as pom poms and alternating patterns. (MSJ = Mission San Jose High School)
My personal experience with knitting (leader): The beginning of the road was hard for me, and I struggled to poke the needles through my clumsy fingers and the tangled yarn. Luckily, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of knitting is its flexibility and ability to accomodate failure and numerous restarts, and so after failing a couple more times, I finally was able to find my pace and internal rhythm. Afterward, it was truly a relaxing process that brought me calm and filled my late afternoons with a cozy warmth.
Watching the group: Watching the group of people from all grade levels and genders gather together in the classroom to attend MSJ Key Club and iKnit’s introductory meeting, I was filled with gratification and joy that so many people were interested in knitting and were willing to take their time to help those less privileged. Later, when I collected all the scarves for donation, carrying those two large bags of hand knit scarves made me so proud of our members and their dedication to their community, especially since knitting itself takes many hours, and many members started from scratch and had to take the additional time to learn the skill as well.