A group of knitters and crocheters that meets weekly at the Gibsons Public Library has contributed 162 handmade items to the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society. The donation, made on Dec. 3 during a regular gathering of the Knitting a Community drop-in collective, is the second donation in 2024 and will be distributed by seven support networks allied with SCCSS.
As many as 21 women congregate each week at the library. Participants are aged 30 to 94 years old, with varying levels of knitting and crochet experience.
The accumulation of donated items was composed of 87 blankets, 64 hats and 11 scarves — all created since springtime.
“What I really love about this group,” said volunteer facilitator Lynne Dyment, “is that it provides a place for people who have moved here and don’t know how to connect.” When Dyment herself moved to the Sunshine Coast 12 years ago, she experienced acute loneliness. The library asked if she would consider leading a drop-in for knitters and crocheters. Dyment scheduled the sessions weekly on Tuesdays. Now after nearly 11 years (its anniversary is next February), the group continues to meet 50 times each year.
“It’s very social and it’s very productive and it’s lots of fun,” added Dyment. “It’s a big, loud group of cheerful women.”
Some projects, like blankets, require tight-knit collaboration. A trio of women designs the pattern and creates individual components, afterward turning them over to a dedicated sewer — Lily Gomez sews the majority of blankets for the group — who stitches the squares together.
Most of the yarn used for community projects is donated by members. And December’s wealth of woollens represents just a portion of members’ total output. “If somebody wants to come and knit a blanket for their grandchild or something they’re working on for themselves, they’re absolutely free to join us,” said Dyment.
Knitting a Community members convene at the library every Tuesday from 10 a.m. until noon, and welcome newcomers.
Shapes of serendipity
Local photographer and potter Nicole Arnett opened a month-long solo exhibition with a reception at The Kube gallery on Dec. 6. Free or Best Offer features a bright-hued travelogue of contemporary urban landscapes in two and three dimensions. Arnett favours strong fields of colour and whimsically shaped ceramics.
“I always described my photography as the little bits and pieces that are in your pocket after a trip because there’s nothing staged about it,” said Arnett. “It’s very of-the-moment. Sometimes it’ll just be [something I capture] out on a walk, very spontaneous.”
While photography is a recently adopted métier for Arnett, she has been creating original pottery since the age of 12. After moving to the Coast in 2017 she set up her own studio with a potter’s wheel and kiln. Arnett’s Free or Best Offer continues at The Kube until the end of December.
Then she discovered that her longtime instructor — Liz de Beer, erstwhile studio manager of the Parkgate Pottery Studio in North Vancouver — lived down the road in Langdale.
“She was my first adult teacher,” recalled Arnett. “Not a bad way to start in terms of instruction, and just such an amazing human.”
Arnett observed that the Kube’s showcase of her work is the first time that her photography and pottery — respectively spontaneous and deliberate in their execution — have dovetailed: “They started to inform each other a bit. It was interesting to see what was happening with my hands when I was constantly focusing on my images.”
Arnett’s Free or Best Offer continues at The Kube until the end of December.
Diamonds make harbour shine
A vision for youth outreach defined by the Pender Harbour Music Society at the beginning of its current season came to fruition last month with a free concert by acclaimed children’s performers Charlotte Diamond and her son Matt.
Diamond, a Sechelt resident, was made a Member of the Order of Canada six years ago for her contributions to the creativity, self-expression and musical literacy of young people.
The pair of singer-songwriters performed for students of Madeira Park Elementary and the Serendipity preschool on Nov. 19. “Together Charlotte and Matt made an effervescent, energetic and often hilarious duo,” said Lynn Chartres, director of the Pender Harbour School of Music. “They kept their audience engaged and entranced from their opening song Four Hugs a Day until the last, Leave the World a Little Bit Better.”
Chartres remarked that students and staff leaving the Pender Harbour School of Music continued to sing and smile as they walked back to school. “It was a morning of musical magic,” she added, “and PHMS extends gratitude to the generous anonymous donor who helped to make this happen.”
