A charity that encourages people to make blankets for the needy, 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day, is displaying the blankets it collects at regional shows under the theme, “Local Blankets is Lekka“.
The roadshow kicked off at the Hellenic Club in Mouille Point on Saturday April 22 and will head to Mossel Bay on Saturday May 13 and from there to other parts of the country.
KnitWits clubs around the country have been incorporating local features of their communities into their blankets, said Ruth Ely, from the Lansdowne library KnitWits club, which made a blanket depicting Boulders Beach penguins.
“We will hopefully be showcasing the blankets at some of the malls soon to get more people involved. People don’t have to make a whole blanket, they can even just make a square if they can.
“The next project we will embark on is when we will be making scarves with a little note, saying ‘take me home if you need me’. The scarves will hang on trees all over the metro, and we will also donate some to those in need. The project kicks off just before Mandela Day.”
Another Lansdowne library KnitWit, Stephanie Fransman, 74, has been knitting and crocheting since her early 20s. She joined the club in 2019 and now teaches new members how to crochet.
“We made one big blanket, about two metres by one-and-a-half metres, and people from Lansdowne also donated about 12 blankets… We started with the blanket in January and about six women were involved in making the blanket.
“My motivation to keep doing this is simply to help others by practising the skill which my mom taught me. It is a skill that I would like to pass on to others as well.”
Another knitter, Dawn Abrahams, said, “’This is really something that they should bring back at schools to improve the kids’ discipline and focus. This drive really brought us together as a team, but lots of people also did their blankets on their own and we could ask them about how they made them.”