Dear Kay,
On my mind these days: mothering.
Yesterday, I was given links to two videos, and I share them here because I can’t stop thinking about them. The mothering going on in these videos is epic, inspiring, and at the same time so simple, so unadorned and humble.
Video Number One
A live webcam streaming from Savannah, Georgia. It’s a great horned owl in her nest, tending to her week-old owlets.
The dad brings a rat every now and again, while she sits for hour upon hour on her babies, providing a down blanket for them, basically. One eye open, snoozing, then alert and dangling rat savories for the babies.
Video Number Two
A four-minute documentary about two women who decided to teach inmates how to knit at a prison in Maryland. When my friend Betsy told me about this program, I instantly assumed that the inmates were women. I was wrong.
Lynn Zwerling spent five years—five years—persuading prison officials that a knitting program for inmates was a good idea. What nurturing and care, what patience and persistence, and maybe a little stubbornness. She was in car sales before she retired and began this program, Knitting Behind Bars.
Worlds apart. The owls, high in a tree near a swamp, are as free as the wind. The inmates knit in a windowless room, under the most constrained circumstances imaginable. Yarn, needles, and scissors are counted at the end of a session. Nobody knits except in that room, with these women present.
But instinct is at play in both the great horned owl and the retired car saleswoman. The owl knows what to do. Lynn Zwerling did too, knew deep in her heart that this project was worth fighting for. In a Washington Post article, Lynn said, “We come from a generation that believes the individual has the potential to impact society.” She acted on that instinct, and now, more than 400 inmates are knitting.
These videos are about the same thing. There’s slowness in each, a patience and a recognition that life is exactly this. You work with what you have. You have constraints. But you keep at it.
Love,
Ann
PS Knitting Behind Bars works under severe prison constraints on materials, but they can accept donations of certain specific yarns and needles. The Knitting Behind Bars website has details here. And you can make a financial donation via that website as well. If you’ve ever wondered if a program like this can affect people’s moods and attitude, Lynn writes: “For fear of sounding like an evangelist, I must say the transformation is impressive. Imagine the three of us—Sheila, Lea and me—sitting in the midst of 22 content, happy inmate knitters, who are companionable just like any knitting group, sharing family stories, and yes, even recipes.”
PSS I’m so thrilled to have just received a comment from Lynn herself. It’s like she’s stepped out of the video! HELLO LYNN! She writes: “You lovely ladies made my day by featuring us and Knitting Behind Bars in your blog this morning. Our program is indeed alive and well with in excess of 600 knitters coming though our Thursday nights in the past 8 years. And guess what, some of our behind the wall knitters have been released and are still happily knitting. When released we provide a knitting kit to those men who seem the most motivated to help them in their re-introduction process. Picture one of our guys, sitting on his front porch in Baltimore knitting away, happy, making hats for his babies, while wearing a home monitoring anklet. That visual warms my heart. If your readers feel compelled to send yarn, hold off, yarn is such a problem, but we could use some more metal #8 circular needles in the 16″ length. And of course, a small monetary donation would be appreciated to fund those going home kits, in particular.
“Again, thanks for the recognition. Coming from the Modern Daily girls makes it even more special.”
Knit and Be Happy,
Lynn Zwerling
KnittingBehindBars.blogspot.com
lynnzwerling@verizon.net
That owlcam was a sanity-saver for me last winter, and I was thrilled to see the pair return to the nest this year. Just wait til those little fuzzball babies open their eyes and start growing Real Feathers and teetering around on the edge of the nest and then climbing (foot, foot, BEAK! foot, foot, BEAK!) up the nest tree! So exciting 🙂
What a great story to wake up to. Thank you! I’m really impressed by these women – their tenacity and their desire to share their love of knitting to help others. So inspiring.
What a beautiful post and very apt as it is Mothering Sunday here in the UK.
Had to come back to comment on the Knitting Behind Bars video…didn’t that fellow in the parking lot hit the nail on the head?
Hats off to the women who imagined this program and then followed through, despite obstacles.
YES. I could never quite articulate knitting’s calming effect on me, and he said it exactly.
Ann, i loooooove this project! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for both of these—the live feed and the video. The first is just beautiful at this hour of the morning: the owl’s face to the sun, the many bird songs, the reflection of the tree in the pond. The second is heartening. I confess it does make you want to send them yarn, which must be the universal knitter’s response.
Ann, maybe sometime later today it will hit me why this story of the men knitting and smiling made me tear up this morning. Beautiful story.
PS Please text me when the daddy owl brings his babies a rat.
I teared up, too. Lovely post.
Thank you for this, more than I can say. It’s a very welcome antidote to the barrage of hate and violence currently occupying the news, mostly about politics. The knitters behind bars video moved me to tears. I’m going to donate today.
I love when she says “Oh, they wanted to knit. They just didn’t KNOW they wanted to knit.”
Splendid. Thanks for this.
My favorite bit of what you wrote: “There’s slowness in each, a patience and a recognition that life is exactly this. You work with what you have. You have constraints. But you keep at it.” That’s my wise neighbor who has me slowing down and thinking this morning!!
Like! Like! Like!
You lovely ladies made my day by featuring us and Knitting Behind Bars in your blog this morning, Our program is indeed alive and well with in excess of 600 hitters coming though our Thursday nights in the past 8 years. And guess what, some of our behind the wall knitters have been released and are still happily knitting. When released we provide a knitting kit to those men who seem the most motivated to help them in their re-introduction process. Picture one of our guys, sitting on his front porch in Baltimore knitting away, happy, making hats for his babies, while wearing a home monitoring anklet. That visual warms my heart.
If your readers feel complelled to send yarn, hold off, yarn is such a problem, but we could use some more metal #8 circular needles in the 16″ length. And of course, a small monetary donation woud be appreciated to fund those going home kits, in particular,
Again, thanks for the recognition. Coming from the Mason-Doxon girls makes it even more special.
Knit and Be Happy,
Lynn Zwerling
KnittingBehindBarsblogspot
ynnzwerling@verizon.net
Thanks so much for doing this. Loved your words of hope as much or more than the knitting part!
wow!!! is all i can say with tears in my eyes…
Wow! Good for her! I’m very impressed she’s in the prison with sharp objects.
A few years ago a local Home Depot had a nest of great horned owls in the garden section, on a sack of something, maybe compost. The employees were wonderful giving them their space. You could see the mother on the sack of compost or whatever, and the father roosting up in the corner. Then later you could see the babies in all of their fuzzy glory. Meanwhile, people are going about their business buying tomatoes, etc. It was surreal and fun, too.
So moved. Thank you.
Absolutely love the knitting behind bars story! Thanks for sharing. Made my Sunday.
Wow. I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately after reading your (as in the two of you) posts. I stopped by for one thing and am leaving with tears running down my cheeks. Needless to say, that is NOT why I stopped in, but feeling is never a bad thing. Knitting is so much more than knitting.
…and this is why I read your blog. So lovely, and so unexpected ???? All the owl videos, the prison knitting, the self rising flour videos, must match up with the random nooks and crannies in my brain that need a little boost. ???????? Have a good Sunday ????
What a beautiful program. Thank you Lynn and MDK for spreading the word.
Thank you SO much for posting these! Wonderful.
I’d love to help with the going home kits. My friends do a literacy program,(ABC Prison Literacy) developed over the past 20 years… what a great addition knitting would be. I’m familiar with the hurdles you must jump to bring a service like this to the prison population. Thank goodness for Lynn.
Lynn and another dear friend started our local “Sip ‘n Knit” over 10 years ago. Lynn has one of the biggest hearts I have ever known. Thank you for sharing her incredibly story. She is truly a mensch!:) (In the Yiddish sense of the word,LOL:)!
The Knitting Behind Bars going home kit includes a ball of worsted weight yarn, a 16 inch #8 cir ular, a set of #8 dpns, a finishing needle and if we have enough money a pompom maker. As I said these kits go to our motivated knitters. This year this effort will be doubled as we expand to the only womens prision in Maryland. Thanks for your interest.
Thank you
Our county library, until it was defunded by the county board, ran a Books Behind Bars program at the county jail (inmates stay up to one year) that achieved some of the same results. My pipe dream is to re-establish that program… or start a Knitting Behind Bars program. If the sheriff’s candidate for whom I campaigned a couple years ago had won, that dream might have come true. But now I must wait for a new sheriff in 2018.
I’ve watched the eagles for years, and I’ve been impressed by the similarities in parenting behaviors between the eagles and humans! It’s very touching.
Like. 🙂
I’m reading this on Monday morning and am extremely moved by both videos. The knitting behind bars program is amazing and inspires me to want to help. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, Knitting Behind Bars. What a fantastic program. Something to unite us all. 🙂
Loved the prison knitting piece!!!
Love it. Thank you!!
Knitting Behind Bars, how wonderful! Thank you for sharing that video.
bravo to the ladies teaching in the prison!
Thanks for posting the owl cam! I’m hooked on it now. My grown daughter is as well. I just leave it up on my computer while I go about my day and listen to the little hoots and chirps throughout the day. 🙂