I was reading this story on our local news this morning and thought it is such a wonderful gesture of love and wanted to share with you all. I hope you all find it as touching as I.


Knitters Blanket VT victims with love
Blacksburg, VA - The families of those who were killed during the April 16th mass shooting at Virginia Tech are being blanketed with support. Knitters from all over made a trip to Blacksburg Saturday.

Some drove hours just to be part of a sewing party. The group organizing The Hokie Healing project, the Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg plans to make 32 blankets for the 32 victims' families.

They've spent weeks collecting the thousands of squares necessary to make this happen and everything came together piece by piece.

"Yeah! Oh, it's beautiful!"

It takes six to eight hours to make just one of these squares. It takes 16 squares to make just one of these blankets. So that's about 128 hours these fingers have to endure.

Barbara Marsh, Drove More Than 2 hours - "They're feeling pretty good at the moment. I don't know what tomorrow's going to do!"

Barbara Marsh drove more than 2 hours to be a part of this project. She says these rhythmic motions can be painful physically and emotionally.

Marsh - "It gave me a release. So I felt like I had an out and I was doing something that was going to be important to somebody."

Beth Diesel, VT Grad Student - "I know it helped me to be able to get together as a group and make the squares and talk about things. It was a way to be productive and also grieve about everything that happened."

For this close-knit group of knitters, thoughts of their fellow Hokies go into every maroon and orange stitch.

Diesel - "I hadn't been thinking about things for quite a while, but now that we're all here and all the people have come together to do this and seeing everything come together, yeah, I've really been thinking about everything."

The group collected 6,200 squares from all 50 states and 18 different countries. Each one as different as the woman who spent hours knitting it.

Theresa Detrie, VT Grad Student - "I made four squares. Two were a lot more complicated than the others. After the first two, I'm like, 'OK, we need to simplify the pattern a little.'"

But differences aside, this group is interwoven by a similar goal, to bring comfort and warmth to those who need it most.

Marsh - "They can wrap it around them and as they do, they can look at the squares and they can think of all the loving hands that went into them."

Since the Yarn Shop got 4,000 more squares than they needed for the 32 blankets, they plan to also make some for the survivors of the mass shooting. And then if there are still squares left after that, and there likely will be, they'll make blankets for the others who were in Norris Hall that day. They just want to make sure everyone is covered -- literally.

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email is moserlara@yahoo.com

I made and sent 4 squares. Since I live in Virginia, the local paper has been very active in the coverage of the blanket event. I was happy to do that little thing to be part of the big thing, if you get my drift.
Virginia is still quite shell shocked from the tragedy. There isn't anyone that doesn't know someone at Tech. It is just that kind of school.

I saw that on our local news this morning, too. The blankets were absolutely beautiful. I think it was a wonderful idea. There's been so much outpouring of thoughtfulness on the part of so many different people and groups.

Wow, It's nice to see fellow Virginians here. I think they are beautiful in more ways than one too. AND Thanks OP for your contribution too. It's a beautiful gesture!

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email is moserlara@yahoo.com