Close-Knit Gators knit hats for Shands Children's Hospital
By GAIA BONINI, Alligator Contributing Writer
On three blankets spread over the Plaza of the Americas, 13 knitters, both beginners and experts, wove orange and green yarn into miniature pumpkin-shaped hats.
The Close-Knit Gators, a new charity-based knitting club on campus, held their second weekly meeting Tuesday night.
When finished, about 40 pumpkin hats will be donated to the Shands Children's Hospital at the UF for Halloween.
"I'm really pretty proud of what we're doing," said Kelly Korman, the club's president.
The club, which is in its first semester, will have a new charity knitting project each month.
November's project will benefit Gainesville's Dreams of a Lifetime, a foundation for young adults diagnosed with cancer.
The foundation's sponsors will buy the club's knitted beanies and give them to its patients.
Since the club doesn't want to make a profit, they'll donate the proceeds back to Dreams of a Lifetime foundation.
Future plans for the club include knitting blankets for soldiers overseas and selling alligator-shaped scarves to fans. They'll then donate the proceeds to charity.
"And maybe send one to Tim Tebow," Korman said, blushing. "I think he'd like that."
The club, which has nearly 40 active members, will meet once a week for the rest of October to finish the tiny pumpkin-shaped hats.
Korman's concern of providing expensive knitting materials for the club was put to rest Monday when Deborah Ramey, a Gainesville resident, gave the club years of collected knitting needles, yarn and other materials that once belonged to her grandmother.
Ramey said her grandmother used to knit things to beautify the community and wanted to pass that on to the new generation of knitters.
Korman said she learned to knit at the gym instead of working out and has been working to promote the club to fellow knitters.
"It's not a huge resume booster, and it's not going to score points with grad schools," she said. "But you don't feel forced to be here. It's people coming together to do what they like."
