Knitting

Casting on shouldn't be so hard!

Beth, a nursing instructor, and Dr. Theo's wife, sent me a list last Fall of things I could bring to Nepal for her women's group.  Young women commit suicide at an alarming rate here



and she's
had some of her
nursing students share depression symptoms with her, so she decided to start an activity/craft group once a week for the 3rd year



students.  Believe it
or not, some of the
students are here only because their
parents told them to become a nurse.  Their heart is not in it.  So, by creating projects that will use their hands, the students open up and talk about their feelings......which helps.

Our church sent a duffel bag full of yarn, needles, cross-stitch items, thread, paper, pens, crayons, and badminton shuttlecocks.  I took the yarn the third day I was here, along with knitting and crochet needles. Beth had some from her mother's friends, also.  The girls were excited to learn to knit.  Only a few knew how, and they were gracious to help teach others.  In fact, they HAD to help as we had a bit of chaos with 30 girls !  Some took up the crochet hooks as we ran out of  needles.  But, we know they
will trade and share among themselves as time goes on.  At first we said only one skein of yarn, but that didn't work.  When the time was up, there was not a lick of yarn or needles left!

Beth's home is one level above the nursing school and she can look out her windows and see the girls on the roof, or the stairs, in groups.....knitting.  It does her heart good.

The next week some of the girls had knit a scarf or booties, or a little rug....it somewhat depended on how much of the yarn they managed to get away with!  They were quite proud of themselves. 

These cards sold for 60 cents apiece!  Worth much more!

Knitting was suspended as a classtime subject in order to prepare cross-stitch cards for the Nursing School Mela, which is an annual fair.  Many had already learned the cross-stitch and Beth had made a pillow cover featuring their beautifully done pieces.  I have helped her finish more pillow covers as the girls complete their projects.

Here are the students with their projects, minus about 6 we sewed up that afternoon.  They are off on a two-week 'summer' break now and wanted to take these home with them.  Beth and I have it down now....she cuts and I sew them together...
assembly-line.  If we can find more material, we'll make some more as some of the girls made multiples of cross-stitch projects....all inspirational themes.

For a couple of weeks, I helped Beth finish two quilts and make aprons, ruffled pillows, hotpads, etc. for the Mela.  I even donated a caftan I'd bought at the thrift store and wasn't wearing. Out of it  we made two aprons and hotpads to match, plus two ruffled pillows...she found solid fabric to match for all.  We kept laughing about using our clothes, etc.  Beth just kept bringing up more projects she'd started the night before, so we kept sewing!  After all, scholarships for the nurses was the goal.




I've made peace with the treadle sewing machine.....have gotten into the rythym now.  Have learned how to wind the bobbin by hand and other idiocincrasies.  I will be piecing a quilt top I brought along so needed to get independent on the machine.  The pink quilt?  Had 280 squares and 320 knots....I did all the knots!  And I handquilted the border and binding....4 trips around.  And it sold for $45. to a visitor from Korea.      The purple quilt Beth hand cross-stitched 6 large squares and sewed it all together.  I only tied it.  The hospital bought it for ten dollars.  This is the place to buy quilts ladies!  All in all it was a productive project and made a lot of money for scholarships.  I'm glad I could help.