Story Lee
On an average Thursday night, Lamar Hall might look barren: Hardly any lights are on and most of the classrooms are empty. But, tucked away in room 129, a small group of students meet to do their crafts and enjoy each other’s company. This is UM Knitting.
Lynnzie Williams, a senior psychology major and the president of UM Knitting, is always ready to help newbies learn the ropes. She is one of seven board members for the group. With a friendly voice, she will tell any newcomer about the university’s only knitting club.
“On a typical day, (it is) a lot of gossiping and yarn work,” Williams said.
But UM Knitting is much more than that.
Founded in February 2020 by Ole Miss alumni Claire Dosher and Sam Frankenfield, UM Knitting started as a fun way to utilize yarn hobbies for community service. Students would gather to knit baby hats to be donated to Baptist Memorial Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Four years later, the club has expanded to include crochet, and members also make baby mittens alongside the hats.
Items are now donated to Blair E. Batson’s Children’s Hospital in Jackson, Miss. With the help of their community service coordinator, senior biology major Maianh Tran, club members hope to expand their services and create adult-sized hats and mittens to donate to Oxford’s homeless community. She shares that those who participate can get community service hour credit for any organizations they are involved in that require them.
“It takes maybe two hours to knit a baby hat, and you (can) get two hours of community service hours for that,” Tran said.
The club is open to all skill levels, and beginners are encouraged to come in with little-to-no knowledge and knitting supplies. Williams herself did not know how to knit when she joined the club last year.
“You don’t have to bring a single thing,” Williams said. “And we also do a (supply) checkout sometimes. We’re getting stricter with this semester, but if you wanted to, you can take it and then return it at our next meeting so you don’t have to go to Walmart and drop like $20 on supplies for a hobby that you may not commit to.”
Skillful members, like sophomore classics major Maggie Wallace, benefit just as much from UM Knitting’s guidance. Over the fall semester, Wallace crocheted five baby hats to donate, but she had trouble finding a place for them to go.
“I didn’t know where to go, because everywhere I called would say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t need any right now.’ And I was like, okay, I’m just going to take them to knitting club. They know what to do with them.”
Members are connected by camaraderie and a shared passion for their volunteer work. They laugh and chat with each other as they work.
“It’s just a chill group,” Williams said. “It’s like no commitment. You could come one session or, like, one meeting and then not come to the rest of the semester if you don’t want to.”
