With so much snow and temperatures plummeting, some people might find themselves shivering, but there’s something happening at the Yellowknife Public Library to make people feel warm.
A knitting club has been formed, made possible by Brad Cremasco, the public services librarian, and Aingeal Stone, a longtime knitter.
“Brad the librarian here, he does the programming,” said Stone, who’s the facilitator of the knitting group. “I was in a book club… and I mentioned that I knit, and so he asked if I would be interested to facilitating the knitting club through the public library.”
Since then, Cremasco and Stone have chosen various knitting patterns and settled on hats as an initial project to help newcomers learn the basics of knitting. At the same time, it’s also meant to support the “Hat, not Hate” anti-bullying campaign.
“So it is a very simple beginner knitting pattern, so everyone will get a label (to put on their hat),” said Stone, “and yeah, we’re just knitting away.”
Limited supplies of yarn and needles were provided for beginners to learn, but the library encouraged all participants to bring their own yarn and needles if they had them.
The program takes place at the library on Saturdays starting at 1 p.m. The first sessions ran Nov. 12, 19 and 26, but Stone anticipates more get togethers in the coming weeks.
She was there to help people out to the best of her ability and she encourages participants to have fun. Some of the club members know different techniques that others don’t, so they too share skills and ideas.
Stone said she’s looking forward to welcoming more people in the future, even if they just want to work on their own projects.