The Green Hat

When a friend proposed the idea that we, as fiber artists, could use our skills to provide hats for Gazas children, I wasn't at all pessimistic. We could indeed knit or crochet those hats if we wanted. The question was, "Then what?" All other ideas my friends and I had come up with in the past had always been thwarted by this one question!

My friend was much more certain than I. The hats would be delivered to the children they were made for. When I realized the possibility, which was to me, nothing short of a miracle on earth, I found myself becoming manic. I would knit a hundred hats, I vowed! This didn't happen since we had a very short deadline but that number remains a personal goal for the future.

My first hat is the one that stands out the most to me. It was intended for an infant and fit in the palm of my hand. I chose a green yarn because green is the color of renewal and growth. And it is the color of nurturing. I had yet to worry about the details of the delivery during the making of that hat. My emotions were very high and positive and I poured this energy into that hat.

I wanted the baby who wore this hat to grow up to be healthy and strong. I prayed over this hat like I did over all of the 12 or so that I knit and crocheted. Please God, let the child who gets this hat grow to a prosperous adulthood, allow this child to feel secure, to not feel hunger or fear, to feel that there is love in the world and to be loving in return.
The day that I received the first photo of the delivery, I saw that my green hat was taken by a boy who couldn't be more than 10 years old. It is a tad bit too small for him, but he wears it proudly just the same. I thank the heavens that I tend to knit rather loosely!
You can see him in the first photo in this post. He is the one that is leaning on another childs shoulder and looking at the camera in that matter of fact way. I like to think that my prayers reached him. That when he put it on, he felt loved. That he felt a subconscious connection to me as a fellow Palestinian, that we have an agreement that he will rise above his desperate existence to be a man of peace one day, and that I am here for him-always.

However, as other hats began to arrive, I was taken outside myself (and my romantic imagination) . This is why this post is hard for me to write as a testimonial to my own contribution. The hats that arrived overwhelmed me, not just with their quality and beauty, but with the love and prayer of others who trully cared about those children.

The box in which I collected the hats for mailing positively overflowed with love. I was certain that the postal clerk might think that there was something alive in there! LOL! In a way, there was. It was a box full of humanity.

I look forward to doing this again and again. As long as its needed. I am not one of those knitters that can discuss the intricacies of the art. I simply knit in the same way that my Palestinian grandmother taught me and like her, I knit for others, to make them happy. In other words, I knit as an act of love and for Gaza, as a weapon of peace.