Arts & Leisure
Created with love, one square at a time
By Melissa Wood
The Square Knits put their talents to work to brighten the lives of others. Pictured are, from left, Kathy Vinet, social worker at the Harbor Home, Jamie Rooney of the York Police Department, and Barbara Moquin and Rosie Lent, both of Yorkshire Commons. During the holidays, the "Square Knits" donated seven afghans to the York Police Department to go with their holiday baskets for needy families as well as eight afghans to Harbor Home and eight to New Generation in Greenland, N.H., a home for unwed mothers.
Courtesy photo
YORK - The Square Knits don't have too many rules.
The group gets together every Monday in the community center at Yorkshire Commons to knit and crochet squares that will be sewn together to make afghans. Anyone can drop by and join the group, or you can knit a square on your own and drop it off at the community room or at York Village Marketplace. Squares can be any color. The only requirement is that squares be seven inches by nine inches in size and made with a washable fabric.
Once there are a lot of squares, then anyone who feels like it can design and sew them together - usually 25 or 30 - and make an afghan that will be donated to someone who needs some warmth and comfort. During the holiday season in December, the group donated afghans to the Harbor Home and New Generation, a home for pregnant teenagers, and their afghans were included with care baskets donated to families by the York Police Department.
"I'm sure recipients appreciate that total strangers cared enough to do something like that," said Barbara Moquin, organizer of the group. Moquin said the afghans not only provide warmth but can also add a touch of home for people in nursing homes.
The group works on making afghans all year, giving them away throughout the year. Since Christmas they already have five more completed for donation. They are part of a larger community service group called Warm Up America, a nationwide organization of volunteers who create afghans to help those in need. Before they are donated, each blanket gets a tag that reads, "Created with love by the volunteers of Warm Up America."
Moquin added that she thought the group making the afghans got more out of the experience than those receiving the donations.
Stephanie Heald is the newest member of the group. She is an eighth-grader at York Middle School and walks to Yorkshire Commons after school on Monday afternoons. Heald has been knitting for three years, after being taught by her grandmother.
"You only learn it once and you know it the rest of your life," said Heald, who has knitted scarves for her friends and is now working on matching hats. "They loved them."
On a recent Monday afternoon, Heald arrived almost frozen after walking over from York Middle School. She was able to warm up with cup of hot cocoa and joined the other members in the Yorkshire Commons community room. The place is more like a living room, with couches and chairs and a laid-back atmosphere, with a little friendly gossip, not to mention some cookies and other treats.
Heald especially enjoys taking the many loose squares and designing an afghan. She lays the squares out on the floor, sometimes they are color coordinated, but other times the squares are mostly multi-colored but offset by beige ones to tone it down slightly.
"I love having all ages," said Rosie Lent, a resident of Yorkshire Commons who is passionate about crocheting, even having a license plate that read "HOOK-Z" until the lobster plate came out.
Lent is part of the group, but also crochets squares while waiting her turn at the bowling alley. Lent said she never sits down without something to work on and has also crocheted hats for lobstermen and seafarers with Union Congregational Church. The group made enough hats so that every man working on the ships coming into Portsmouth, N.H., can have one when they arrive.
"There's so many ways that people can help brighten somebody else's day," said Lent.
Eugenia Benner, also a resident of Yorkshire Commons, said she stopped knitting years ago but started again to make squares for the afghans. She said once she started, it was addicting.
"It's very easy," she said. "I think if you make one square, you're really hooked."
Anybody is welcome to drop by and join the group on Monday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m., or to donate squares or yarn to the community room at Yorkshire Commons or York Village Marketplace. For more information, contact Barbara Moquin at 363-0292.
