UPDATE: 03/23/2018 I changed the zip-code to 55101. My apologies for any inconvenience this caused anyone.

My wife, who is the most wonderful person I’ve ever been married to in my life (*old joke, probably get me in trouble*) has been busy for the last few months knitting scarves. After a very long hiatus from knitting, she picked it up again last fall. This is a woman who can knit anything. Without a pattern. Thinking it up as she goes. You know those prize-winning pieces you saw at the State Fair last fall? Not even close to as beautiful as what this woman can do with her skills, needles, and enough yarn to fill a large bedroom.

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Last fall she was kicking around for something to keep her out of trouble – a full-time pursuit in my opinion – and I suggested she turn her knitting skills toward the ministry for the homeless we support at the Good Neighbor Meal. Why not, I asked, hand out knit items to the guests? We’ve given gifts of blankets, food, socks, and a host of other things over the years at the annual Christmas meal. Why not hand out some scarves? After all, you’ve got a year to work on it.

My wife, who is much wiser than I am, said that would be too many to do by herself, and suggested that we gift them to another ministry that’s a favorite of ours, The Union Gospel Mission. I was honored to be Santa for their Christmas party in the recovery center last year, and given her max production she might just meet that goal.

A few weeks later, she let me know that a few of her friends from a knitting gathering, and her mother, were also making scarves for the project. Excellent!

Then a funny thing happened while I was wasting my time on Facebook: Mike Rowe’s Returning The Favor. It dawned on me that I have all of these great readers who do good things all the time. Mind you, I’m not #MikeRowe, but I am multi-talented, handsome, and modest. Uh… I’ve also been covered in sewage while doing a good deed for someone? Yeah, that’s more like it.

Anywho, I figured that with all of you out there, and all of the nice people you know, we could conspire to make this world a better place. How? By working as a group.

It seems as though just knitting one hat, or one scarf, is viewed as a minor thing by most people. But knitters know that it takes time, money, and concentration to make it happen. Yet it feels like you “just bless one person with that item,” and it’s a tough thing for some to bring yourself to do the gifting. Not easy for everyone in this crowd – a bunch of you are introverts. What if we got everyone who reads this blog, and knits, to make a scarf? What if they got all of their friends who knit to make one as well. Or, better yet, more than one. And some stocking caps if you don’t “do” scarves. If we did that, we could keep a whole bunch of people warm and feeling loved next Christmas.

With that thought in mind, are you in? You don’t have to knit, but you just convince a knitter to jump in on the team. I’ll have everyone send the knit items to me, and we’ll gift wrap them for the Christmas party. If we get enough to do two parties, we’ll do two. If we have enough to start going to the places the homeless are in the winter, we’ll load up the mobile-outreach-ministry-distribution-center (my Explorer) and hit the corners. And we will take pictures so you can see what it adds up to at the end. I’m picturing a great, big mound of gift-wrapped scarves and hats, lots of smiling faces, and warm heads.

And warm hearts.

Here’s the details:

Each scarf must be six feet in length, and six inches in width (wider or longer if you insist!). That’s simple enough!

I am asking you to put the finished scarf in the smallest possible package you can manage with a note of encouragement on a small card for the recipient. I suggest you put it all in a Ziploc bag and squeeze out all the air. (These have to fit into my tiny office at the Post Office.)

You can mail them directly to me at:

Commotion In The Pews
Post Office Box 4997
101 Fifth Street East
Saint Paul, MN 55101

The address MUST INCLUDE THE POST OFFICE BOX NUMBER. Otherwise, it will be returned to you by the Postal Service.

Also, I need to make something very clear: I AM NOT A CHARITY. I AM NOT A 501 ANYTHING. Yes, you read that right. You can’t deduct this on your taxes. We’re just doing this because it’s cool. No receipts, no tax deductions, but a nice smile at the end of the process.

Drop me a note in the comments if you’d like to participate!

Join the Facebook page for Saint’s Scarves

Email us at saintsscarves@commotioninthepews.com

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