Lea from Lizette Wol Handwerken en Hobbyartikelen in Voorburg called to say she knew of a woman looking for a place to donate an attic full of wool. Yes, you read correctly, an attic full of wool! So we said what we always say,
Yes!
And Lea put us in touch with Nathalie.
Joke was an accomplished knitter and seamstress when she was younger. She created fabulous baby sweaters and booties, sewed fabulous outfits, and very fancy 1980’s sweaters. We know because we found samples of her work in the donation. It is a sad story because Joke, Nathalie’s mom, has dementia and was being moved into a nursing home.
12 Carloads of Yarn, Fabric, and Knitting Supplies
In Joke’s dementia, she bought yarn, fabric, and knitting supplies. It is not an exaggeration to say that the attic was crammed full. And under the bed, behind the furniture, and anywhere where wool could be stuffed. It took 12 stuffed-full carloads to bring the total hoard to the Stichting Wool for Warmth Treasure Trove at the Soza building in The Hague. Big shout out and thank you to all the people who showed up with their cars!!
Over 700 hundred hours sorting time!
We sorted, and sorted, and sorted. And sorted. And Sorted. 13,000 balls of unused wool. Sorted into colour weight and make. Hundreds of partial balls of wool sorted and wound into wool cakes. 900 pairs of knitting needles, matched, washed and joined into pairs. A huge box of crochet cotton that is still being sorted. 60 bags of fabric. Plus buttons, notions, zippers, hooks, trim, ribbon, etc, etc, etc. And clothing.
Before this donation, we handed wool out in shopping bags. Now we hand it out in boxes. Luckily we have large knitting clubs that knit enough that they can use boxes full of wool. We bought 50 moving boxed from Action and I was wondering where they went. I honestly thought they were misplaced. Then I realised that we had used them. It was just that there were so many boxes of wool that 50 boxes didn’t stand out.
We worked long days and called on many of our knitting clubs to lend a hand. We owe special thanks to the Sunday Library Club for all the hours they donated. And several of our knitting clubs deserve special mention for taking carloads of wool (boxes of wool 🙂 like Florence Actief and Stichting Eykenburg.
Project 6000
Joke’s wool will be used for Project 6000. One hat or scarf for each of the 6000 homeless women in The Netherlands. This is exciting as it is our first National Project. Go Knitters and Crocheters!!