Tidy loops of yarn form an intricate lattice pattern. Once you lay it flat, you’ll see that the scarf is longer than it looks at first glance – not only does it cover the desk beneath, it has inches to spare hanging over the edge. After four months of hard work, desks in I-3 are finally piled high with the Crochet and Knitting Club’s completed scarves, ready for delivery to a local homeless shelter in Livermore. 

“We wanted to contribute something back to the community. We knew it would directly help people in need, so that’s why we chose Tri-Valley Haven,” said member Arya Deshpande (‘23).

This was one of the club’s first projects, so officers taught new knitters the fundamentals of crochet and knitting. The club provided different yarns for beginners to follow along and practice with, using knitting needles and crochet hooks. 

“The way we organized this is that us officers created a specific pattern — a pattern is like the steps to make a scarf,” said Victoria Liu (‘23).  “We had a specific type of scarf in mind for people who were just learning how to crochet, and for those we used stitches like single crochet, double crochet which are more of beginner stitches.”

Aside from in-person demonstrations, officers also published video tutorials and FAQs for members to replay at home on their YouTube channel Crochet&Knitting Club.

While some members learned the basics, others more advanced found their own patterns to follow for their scarf. Officers suggested basic parameters for each creation: a length of around four feet, and a width of three inches or greater. This gave members more familiar with crocheting like Arya Deshpande an opportunity to take their crochet skills to the next level.

“My scarf was gray [and] I used the Herringbone Half Double Crochet,” said Deshpande. “I had a good time making it because I got to learn a new stitch, and it was great practicing it and working on perfecting my crochet.” 

President Janani Prasad (’23) created three scarves for the haven with different color and feel.

 “Two of them were blue, blue-ish black-ish,  and then the other one is pink but it also has different textured yarn. We have like fluffy yarn, we have furry yarn, so it just creates more [variety] with all those textures,” said Prasad.

Each student contributed to the club’s efforts, no matter their starting skill level. As members helped each other out, the club ultimately gathered over 10 scarves for donation.

“We had a couple of members who didn’t know how to crochet so we had to find time for teaching them how to do that, and it was really exciting to see the final project, the final scarves,” said Liu. “The scarf project was a project to help them practice their stitches as well, because practice makes perfect. ”

Want to keep up with the Crochet & Knitting club? Find them on Instagram or email them at [email protected]!