The Saint-Louis Residence Knitting Club
10/07/2019
Bruyère is investing in learning to transform health and care. Each year we are benefited by students across the organization who contribute to maximizing the quality of life of our patients, residents and tenants.
The following article, written by Aarape Arasaratnam and Maya Wong-Fortin, both
co-op students at Résidence Saint-Louis, speaks to their experience volunteering with the knitting club, the benefit of intergenerational interactions and the positive impact for our residents.
The knitting club brings together residents and volunteers who share a common interest: knitting.
Every Friday afternoon, the residents who are part of the knitting club are invited to gather in the small living room on 3A. It's a great place to knit!
Goal
As a first project, we want to build a blanket to offer to the people in need in our community. First, the knitting club members must knit wool tiles that will then be sewn together. Our goal motivates us, as we ultimately help someone in need.
Mutual support and new relationships between residents
This knitting activity promotes the creation of social ties between residents. Some of them are already friends and arrive together at the club, while others come and make new friends. The ladies love to share their techniques with one another and create a wonderful page of history together.
For us as students, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of the intergenerational interactions, knowledge transfer and life experience that seniors bring to the table. The residents also teach us to cast on, face stitch, reverse stitch, keep a constant tension and neatly finish the knitted piece.
For their part, the residents benefit from the positive impacts of knitting. These include improving blood circulation in moving hands and training memory and concentration.
The relationships that will develop at the knitting club will not remain confined to the four walls of the knitting room at the Saint-Louis Residence; they will remain engraved in our hearts!
Ultimately, the wool tiles that are knitted and sewn together will turn into blankets, scarves and bonnets. From our perspective as co-op students, we unite much more than woolen tiles; we unite our efforts, our joy, our compassion and our love to make this project a reality!
As co-op students at Saint-Louis Residence, we thought we would offer our presence to improve the quality of life of residents. Against all odds, we have developed a new talent! The residents showed us how to knit!
Long live the knitting club!