Cape Town - Standing tall in the Western Cape Winelands town of Wellington, about 300km of wool has brought hope to residents and visitors with the town’s first hand-knitted Christmas tree.
The four-panelled, colourful hand-crocheted tree, born as an idea by chairperson of the local non-profit organisation Wellington ACVV, Sorita Stoffberg, can be marvelled at at the NG Moederkerk in Main Street.
Stoffberg said she searched for a project that the whole community could get involved in but could never imagine that it would pique the interests and rally donations from as far as the Northern Cape to realise the organisation’s dream of a crocheted tree for Wellington.
“This is the first time we have taken on such a project and the support and love has been amazing and so overwhelming. I looked online for a project that the whole community could get involved in and I found this idea of crocheting projects, which is quite big in Italy at the moment.
“Communication was sent out to the community and the word spread like wildfire and support incredible form the start.
“We started our first community gathering at the local Wimpy to celebrate International Knitting Day but the friendships and bonds that grew from there was phenomenal.
“We would get together monthly with different themes to make it as fun and interactive such as Cheesecake day and Unusual Saucer Day and LP (Vinyl) Day. But as time went on, we didn’t even need special days because the ladies just wanted to get together.
It was so beautiful to be a part of,” said Stoffberg.
Donations of crocheted blocks started streaming in as word got around and soon, Stoffberg said they were able to gather more blocks than they imagined.
At one stage the team behind the initiative packed out all the squares received on the rugby field of Huguenot High School.
“Initially we wanted 2 500 blocks but ended up with more than 7000 and they are still streaming in from everywhere. We are so humbled by the donations for the Tree of Hope received from Northern Cape, Stellenbosch, Langebaan and Cape Town and all over. We are so grateful for all the contributions. We had a dream and they were a part of making that a dream come true.
“At the moment the tree is situated near a shelter and some homeless people have also now come to sleep under it.
“They describe it as their tree and a beacon of hope. And while the wool has suffered some damage with the recent cloud burst and storms, the stretched bits show us just how life can be. It is still an amazing piece of work.
At times we struggled not knowing how we would make this work but we did and we thank all the volunteers,” said Stoffberg.
Stoffberg said once the tree is taken down in the new year, the blocks will be used for smaller blankets that will be donated to various safe homes and charity organisations.
Cape Times