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January - February 1999

L iving with CFIDS, serving others
By Judith Watson

One of the things that have saved me from the despair that often accompanies CFIDS is doing things which give my life purpose. I guess it’s not unlike the old adage: "I wept because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."
 
I knit mittens year-round for children who eat in a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. Most of these children are homeless and live in shelters with their mothers. After much experimentation, I found a two-needle pattern that is extremely simple. I make mittens in a wide variety of colors and in three sizes. When I have lots, I sort them by size and send them to the soup kitchen. I make them in wool so they really keep out the cold, even when wet.
 
It’s wonderful therapy because I know that there are children who would be cold without these mittens. I try to think of the child who will wear them as I’m making each pair. I can knit in bed. I can take my knitting with me wherever I have to wait, like at the doctor’s office or while getting the car repaired.
 
I order the wool from a yarn company in Maine, so the only time that I have to leave my house for this project is to take the box of mittens to the Post Office. The yarn company even sends me samples so I know all the colors and types of yarn available. The wool costs about $3 per pair of mittens.
 
If you’d like a copy of the pattern, I’ll be happy to send one if you send me a self-addressed stamped envelope. I even have a pattern for crocheted mittens, so please specify whether you want knitted or crocheted instructions. And if there’s no soup kitchen in your area, or if you live in a warm climate, the soup kitchen in D.C. would welcome your donations. In D.C., 31% of the children live at or below the poverty level, so the need is critical. If you’d like to get a sense of how dire the situation is, I urge you to read Street Lawyer, John Grisham’s latest book. It’s set in D.C. and paints a compelling picture of how homelessness affects children.
 
Write to Judith Watson at P.O. Box 523021, Springfield, VA 22152. The D.C. soup kitchen address is: So Others Might Eat, 71 "O" Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001-1290.

Judith Watson, a frequent contributor to the Chronicle, lives in Springfield, Va.