Knitting Club Creates Items for Charity

Olivia Davidson, (from left) Kellie Hughes, Michelle Hewitt, Rayley Farnam,
Brooke Wilcox and Brittany Wilcox are among those who take part in the knitting project.

By Victoria Kamerzell

Mrs. Davidson’s Knitting Club began with ten young girls knitting in Lisa Davidson’s home. The group was started in the fall of 2006 by a couple of moms who wanted their home-schooled daughters to learn the same traditional crafts that their grandmothers had practiced. The group tried embroidery and crocheting before they began knitting, which the members seemed to like best.

Over the last few years the group has slightly evolved in size; girls between the ages of 6-17 now fill the large youth room at the Trinity Baptist Church where they meet once a month, except for Christmas when they meet at Lisa’s house in front of the Christmas tree.

The largest change to Mrs. Davidson’s Knitting Club will occur on April 16, 2008 when 129 hats will be donated to the children at the Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek. The group, no longer merely knitting scarves or hats for themselves, has decided to knit for charity.

“I like it because my sister sometimes goes to the hospital and I know that it helps them,” says eleven-year-old Michelle Hewitt who has knitted three hats for charity. One of the club’s knitters has an illness that causes her to be in the hospital several times a year. Lisa Davidson said that she hopes to bring a few knitters with her when they visit the girl in the hospital.

“We want the older girls to really appreciate making the hats for such a great cause,” says Davidson. Without this club, Davidson noted, “the needle arts would have been forgotten in this generation.”

Another one of the knitters, nine-year-old Brooke Wilcox, said that she enjoyed the social side of knitting. “It’s fun. You get to see lots of your friends.” She added that the charitable aspect was also important. “It feels really good (to make hats) for the ones that don’t have any.”

The club is funded through individual donations and through the families of the young knitters. Although Mrs. Davidson’s Knitting Club meets at a Baptist church, the club’s members come from different faiths. Lisa Davidson said a Sunday school teacher at the church where the club often meets donated the majority of the yarn used. The donor’s mother was going into a retirement home and no longer knitted so the Sunday school teacher was able to donate eight-banana boxes worth of yarn, nearly 90% of the yarn needed to supply the club. Lisa said that the knitter’s parents spent the $10-15 it takes to buy a hoop and needle.

Lisa Davidson said that the group is at maximum capacity as she is the only teacher and she likes the personal attention she is able to give each child. However, she said that she would be happy to advise anyone else who would want to start his or her own knitting club for charity. Anyone interested in contacting Lisa Davidson can write a letter to her at the Trinity Baptist Church in Livermore. Include a name and contact information.