PEP, May 2007: Crafting community, stitch by stitch

By JANE LaTOUR

Beyond their intrinsic warmth, blankets mean caring — think of a mother tucking in her little one. When a busy union worker fashions one stitch-by-stitch to donate to someone who needs it, the blanket’s caring and warmth are even greater.

The Women’s Committee of Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 started such a project last year and brought it to loving fruition in April.

The members crocheted blankets and presented the finished products to patients in a nursing home where Local 420 members provide the care.

Once one committee member made the suggestion last fall, others eagerly agreed and started work on their blankets. Those who already knew how to crochet selected their patterns, chose colorful skeins of yarn and began to instruct other committee members in the craft.

Some of the production took place at union meetings, some at home. At a Women’s Committee meeting Nov. 8, members displayed their progress on the blankets to each other.

Crocheting is done by pulling loops of yarn through other loops with the help of a crochet hook. Thus the blanket-making literally took place by hook and by crook, as the committee members — all full-time workers, some students, some mothers and all union activists — found time to add rows of stitches to their blankets in addition to all of their other obligations.

Finally, on April 12, the committee members loaded their finished products into large plastic bags. Local 420 President Carmen Charles, 1st Vice President Isabel Figueroa, Women’s Committee Chair Anita Holder and many members delivered their colorful cargo and piled the lovingly crafted squares high at the Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn.

Long-term McKinney Center resident Barbara McIntosh sat in her wheelchair, decked out in a long, festive dress and a yellow Easter bonnet for the occasion. “I feel very happy to receive my blanket,” she said.

Debra Llewellyn, who crocheted three blankets and has worked at the McKinney Center for six years, tends to McIntosh on a daily basis. She described the soft-spoken McIntosh as “a powerful person, quiet, and very contented.” Llewellyn’s own thoughts about the blanket project were selfless: “It’s something extra I could do to make the residents feel cared for,” she said.

Committee member Paula Forbes saw the blankets as “a nice accomplishment to make the residents — and so many are living away from everyone who used to be there for them — feel that they are special.” Growing up in Kingston, Jamaica, Forbes and her three sisters learned how to crochet from their mother. “This project has been good for the women of Local 420. It brings us together, sharing, storytelling, and doing something in common,” she said.

Vice President Figueroa is a new practitioner. “I learned from Carmen Charles,” she said. She then went on to produce six blankets.

Watching the blankets arrive at their destination in the presence of some of their creators, Anita Holder was gratified. “I am so overwhelmed,” she said. “Just the look on this resident’s face brought tears to my eyes because she is so appreciative.”