Take Your Charity Knitting to Town through Chase the Chill
In the Knitting Nuggets Newsletter, I’ve recently posted several articles from other news stories regarding charity knitters who have been yarn-bombing their communities with scarves, hats, and the like in order to encourage those in need to help themselves. As it turns out, this has actually been happening since, at the latest, 2008, and it has been an organized effort all over the United States as well as in many parts of Canada (and even England and Australia!) thanks to an organization called Chase the Chill. If you’re interested in reading more about yarn bombing with a purpose, read on!
How It Started
In 2008, the Chase the Chill effort began through the efforts of Susan Huxley in the town of Easton, Pennsylvania. As stated on their website, “Our mission is to celebrate the art and beauty of knitting and crocheting, building community, generating positive interest in a location, and sharing with others. “Chase the Chill is an annual graffiti/yarn bombing event that distributes scarves in public places so that those in need—regardless of income and without any qualifiers—can help themselves.” This great idea has spread to many states in the United States as well as many parts of Canada. The U.S. has 27 chapters, and Canada offers 10. Meanwhile, they are constantly encouraging locations without chapters to start their own!
How You Can Participate
First, check out the Chase the Chill Chapters page. See if you have a chapter in your area. If so, you can visit your location’s chapter’s Facebook page (linked to on the Chapters page) and dive right in! Don’t have a chapter? Why not start one? It couldn’t be easier. There are very few requirements in starting a chapter aside from starting a Facebook page and sending an e-mail to the proper main chapter (there’s one for the U.S. and one for Canada). You’ll find the full list of (not at all onerous) requirements/requests at their Start a Chapter page. Then, start knitting and have fun distributing your finished projects around your town! That’s the truly fun part – deciding where to place your wares. And don’t forget the tags encouraging passers-by to take an item if it’s needed. That’s another benefit of starting a chapter – you can get special hang tags from the original chapter. Don’t forget to take photos of your “yarn bombings” and post them on your chapter’s Facebook page. That’s the other fun part! This is such an easy and fun way to enjoy charity knitting for your own community. I know that many charity knitters prefer to donate locally… this is an exciting way to do just that!