A group of women from the Eurobodalla Shire put their knitting skills to good use last week by making "handcrafted wraps" for people doing it tough.
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Wrap with Love is an organisation established in Sydney in 1992, and has grown to be an Australia-wide network of volunteers who create knitted wraps and garments which are sent all over the world.
Members of the Eurobodalla Shire group met at Batemans Bay Library on Tuesday, August 2, and turned the meeting room into a temporary base of operations.
"The Library was draped in a colourful display of handcrafted wraps, and the meeting room was alive with the sound of happy and industrious ladies knitting, crocheting and sewing together wraps destined to give comfort and warmth to people in need, in distress, suffering trauma, or doing it tough," a Wrap with Love spokesperson said.
Fires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a rise in homelessness in recent years, meaning Wrap with Love has been busy distributing their wraps through local not-for-profit organisations.
Wraps were recently sent to Lismore and other parts of North NSW affected by flooding, and 500 wraps were delivered to Eurobodalla Shire Council in June.
"Those wraps came from Wrap with Love headquarters in Alexandria and were handmade by volunteers through the state," the spokesperson said.
"This is addition to hundreds of wraps donated in 2020 by our local groups and individuals from Cobargo, Narooma, Tuross Head, Moruya, Banksia Village Broulee, Batemans Bay, Nelligen, Bawley Point, and places in between."
The spokesperson said each wrap was about the size of a single bed cover and knitted or crocheted in either wool or acrylic.
Rachel, a member of the Narooma Wrap with Love group, calculated that 500 wraps would cost $17,500, highlighting the importance of donations and volunteer work for the organisation.
Each wrap requires 28 squares, meaning 500 would require 14,500 squares. A ball of yarn will provide two squares, and at a "conservative" cost per ball of $2.50, the 7000 balls required would cost $17,500.
However, the cost is likely to be higher yarn prices have gone up.
"This calculation allows nothing for the many days of labour," Rachel said. "It should be noted most of the yarn is donated by people who are on restricted incomes. May God bless them all."
