Last week I was about to go through my knitting and crochet stash boxes to look for more monsters when I heard about the project being run by the lovely people at Squares by Geeks.

Their FAQ document explains they are,

…an informal group of knitters and crocheters who want to do something to help Syrian refugees. Since a lot of us can’t afford to donate money, we decided to donate our time and stashes instead, producing granny square blankets, hats, gloves etc. to help keep people warm as winter sets in.

The splendid Emma Newman* is a member of the group, and she is organising knitting/crochet sessions at various conventions if you’re a geek who likes to craft in company.

I’ve been feeling powerless, frustrated and saddened by recent world events, but this made me feel like I could do one little thing to help. So as well as looking for monsters, I rummaged out all of my unfinished flat knitting and crochet projects. (This doesn’t include the weaving, the hyperbolic crochet, my brief fling with crocheted flowers and other assorted bits.) Here it all is.

SbG kindly agreed to take all of it, even though the autumn colours/my-Grandma’s-living-room-carpet-in-the-70’s patchwork is made of eyelash and feather yarn bits in irregular sizes, I’m a dreadful knitter, and none of it is stitched together.

The patchwork bits triggered off a whole random chain of memories for me. Lying on my Grandma’s hideous but familiar orange and brown carpet with a huge rainbow packet of felt tip pens from W.H. Smith’s and a gigantic black and white poster for colouring in. Knitting the squares while I plotted on a writing retreat in a wonderfully shabby old manor house in Northern Scotland, with almost midnight sun and deer grazing on the lawn, and a big rock outcrop with a thousand moods looming over us. Remembering that I read of someone falling in love with different colours in different projects and finding it happened with that tacky but glorious golden eyelash yarn like late summer sun on a wheatfield.

So, I guess this is another solution to unfinished projects – collaborate and swap. A huge thank you to everyone at SbG for making it so easy to contribute, and especially to Ellen who took on the task of stitching it together. My knitting isn’t perfect, but it will end up warming somebody who needs it, and that is a good thing to feel.

*I love love love Ms. Newman’s Split Worlds series. If you’re a fan of fae and intrigue and gruff gargoyles and Regency manners, do give the books a try.