YouTube is a real eye opener at times! While surfing one day I typed in homeless and then mats and came up with my newest project. Our church has toyed with all sorts of missions and we do a few. We buy Christmas and Birthday gifts for every client in a series of group homes. We do hygiene bags for Los Pobres as well as collect clothing, shoes and household goods all through the year. We have a preschool which operates the same schedule as schools in the district. But we needed more. I drove by the soup kitchen down town one day and noted that the parking lot was full of men, women and children waiting for their daily meal. That made me think....where do they go after they eat? Most of the homeless have everything they own with them. There or stashed back at....where?
Where do they spend the afternoon? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Where do they wake up in the morning? What comforts do they have? What could our church do to help the homeless? I knew there were places in town that fed the homeless. There were coat drives. And of course there was the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but was that enough? When people are homeless, whether by chance or choice, it is a 24 hour a day condition and it last 365 days a year. What do the places that deal with this problem on a day to day basis need to keep functioning? Oh, of course they need money, but what else?
I started researching on YouTube. Amazing tool, YouTube. I learned how to rebuild the back of my stool on YouTube. I learned how to caulk the tub on YouTube and now I am learning how to help the homeless. I do not know where they live, but I do know it is outside and they sleep on the ground. YouTube taught me that sleeping mats for the homeless can be made out of plastic grocery bags and a crochet hook! Not even an investment required, just the commitment of time and talent.
So the call went out for empty plastic carry bags. They have to be straightened, flattened and cut into what turns out to be circles. For this I relied on the ladies at church. Most of them do not crochet so that was left to me. These are then linked together and rolled into a ball. Then the fun part of crocheting them into a mat 3' x 6'. I must confess, by first mat took me 6 weeks to make and is not 3' x 6', but does seem to be about 4 foot square. I took it to church and pastor Kevin blessed it. Off I went to the Posada Homeless Center.
Where do they spend the afternoon? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Where do they wake up in the morning? What comforts do they have? What could our church do to help the homeless? I knew there were places in town that fed the homeless. There were coat drives. And of course there was the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but was that enough? When people are homeless, whether by chance or choice, it is a 24 hour a day condition and it last 365 days a year. What do the places that deal with this problem on a day to day basis need to keep functioning? Oh, of course they need money, but what else?
I started researching on YouTube. Amazing tool, YouTube. I learned how to rebuild the back of my stool on YouTube. I learned how to caulk the tub on YouTube and now I am learning how to help the homeless. I do not know where they live, but I do know it is outside and they sleep on the ground. YouTube taught me that sleeping mats for the homeless can be made out of plastic grocery bags and a crochet hook! Not even an investment required, just the commitment of time and talent.
So the call went out for empty plastic carry bags. They have to be straightened, flattened and cut into what turns out to be circles. For this I relied on the ladies at church. Most of them do not crochet so that was left to me. These are then linked together and rolled into a ball. Then the fun part of crocheting them into a mat 3' x 6'. I must confess, by first mat took me 6 weeks to make and is not 3' x 6', but does seem to be about 4 foot square. I took it to church and pastor Kevin blessed it. Off I went to the Posada Homeless Center.
Anne Stattleman and her sidekick Sal, were most happy with my little endeavor. They now have a youth group which is homeless youth that hang out in the center and cope with being homeless. A spark! A spark! My little pea brain took flight. Young people need to learn a skill! I have lots of crochet hooks! So I went back the next morning in search of the young people who were going to be my project. I would teach them to cut the bags, string the bags and crochet the bags! But alas! My plan was thwarted because they were not there! One wandered in and he gave me direction! I will meet with the whole group on Monday at 4:00. We will make this a social event! Yes, we will all work together for the common good! I am excited! Monday will be the christening, but I have lots of plans for these kids!
Our church is going to have an ice cream social on June 3 and I am going to invite all my little friends to come by for ice cream. That should be fun, don't you think? Our church wants to do some sort of neighborhood thing every month and Posada is in our neighborhood so I can see all kinds of things going on here.
In the meantime, I have devised a plan whereby I can weave one of these mats in two days. This is the first one. It is way too thin though. This was woven with hemp thread as the warp, but I have an new plan.
If I can make the warp out to the same thing as the body, it will be thicker and more durable. So I am working on that. I will teach the kids to crochet, thus freeing me up to build a warp out of plarn which is the word for plastic that is made into yarn. PL arn. Get it?
So tomorrow this one goes to Kevin to be blessed and then to Anne and Sal to give to someone. By this time next week we should be in full production. I will keep you posted. Tomorrow or Monday I will be blogging about my new helper down on the loom. Her name is Icarus and here is but a screen shot of how she helps me. Stay tuned.
