the power of knitting: place ville marie will be blanketed in hope this spring
montreal volunteers aim to stitch together 10,000 squares as a fundraiser for local women’s shelters.
8 minute read
recreation director riana levy, left, attaches a pin to resident bhuvana viswanathan's top while caregiver gillian george sorts through squares at the vista residence on côte-st-luc rd. "it can be someone's first project ever and they can contribute," levy said.
dave sidaway/montreal gazette
picture hundreds and hundreds of blankets assembled from squares knitted or crocheted by volunteers, spread out in a wildly colourful display over the esplanade at place ville marie.
it’s how montrealer nori bortoluzzi wants the capacious outdoor space to look on may 10, 2025.
“our goal is to collect a minimum of 10,000 squares — to have enough blankets to be spread out to cover the esplanade of place ville marie,” bortoluzzi said.
the goal of bortoluzzi’s montreal 2025 blanket project is to raise awareness of violence against women and to support four local shelters.
inspired by a similar project in which she participated during a stay in modena, italy, in 2023 — in which 3,900 blankets were spread over that city’s piazza grande — bortoluzzi is working to replicate the community art installation. she’ll need about 10,000 knitted or crocheted 50-cm-by-50-cm squares (just under 20 inches by 20 inches) for the blankets as well as the co-operation of a small army of volunteers.
in the all-volunteer initiative in modena, participants knitted and crocheted squares, designed the layout of the one-square-metre blankets, stitched together the four squares comprising each, carried the blankets to the piazza grande one day last march and spread them over the square. in exchange for a donation, visitors stood at the perimeter of the piazza and pointed to the blanket or blankets they wanted. the minimum donation requested was 20 euros (about $30), although many paid considerably more. the event raised 83,000 euros (about $125,000) for a women’s shelter in modena.
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the blankets in the montreal project will be larger, made from nine squares instead of four. they’ll measure 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres (about 5 feet by 5 feet), the dimensions of a good-sized throw.
the suggested donation will probably be $70 per blanket, though that’s still to be decided.
the money raised will go to auberge shalom, chez doris, le chaînon and the native women’s shelter of montreal. people can choose to have the blanket they select go to a shelter or another organization that needs them.
bortoluzzi has been reaching out for volunteers to seniors’ groups, seniors’ residences, libraries, schools, the anglican diocese of montreal and the montreal council of women, among other places, and says the response has been encouraging. she asks that anyone interested in participating email notabenefoundation@gmail.com.
“now we are focused on gathering volunteers to knit and crochet the 50-by-50-cm squares,” she said. “starting in january, we’ll need volunteers to help with the blanket layout design and arranging the squares into blankets.” still later, volunteers for the may 10 event will be needed.
the volunteer knitters and crocheters can use any type of yarn, colour, design or pattern for the squares. according to one poster for the initiative, the squares symbolize “your no to violence.”
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bortoluzzi knits and crochets and has already made more than 50 squares for the project. “i love the colours, playing with different stitches,” she said.
for her, the metaphor of knitting or crocheting is “stitching your life together.” she also sees the project as one of community building, with experienced knitters and crocheters assisting novices.
“this is a great cause,” balbina de la garza said of the blanket project. she has been crocheting since she was a child, taught by her mother, and during the covid-19 pandemic used youtube videos to learn how to knit.
“i love a challenge and it keeps me busy,” said de la garza, who works in transportation and logistics. “we are able to be together and do this as a community. i will make as many squares as i can, then do whatever is needed of me.”
while some participants are knitting on their own, others, like vivian konigsberg, have formed knitting groups. for her, “knitting is very relaxing; i find it very zen.”
when she learned of bortoluzzi’s project, konigsberg, a former executive director of auberge shalom, started to ask whomever she spoke with if they wanted to join a knitting group — and “nobody said no.”
one afternoon each week, about 20 women gather at her home to knit; a couple work from their own homes. some have been knitting all their lives; others are beginners.
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“i thought it would be such a nice thing to have a tea party and knit. there are not that many occasions to just sit down with a group of women,” said konigsberg, who is using wool she had left over from afghans she knitted for her grandchildren during the pandemic.
“it’s just so much fun,” she said. “you can do different patterns, different stitches. everyone is using her own wool and everybody has different ideas.”
at the new hope senior citizens’ centre, a grassroots community organization in notre-dame-de-grâce, day program co-ordinator moira brown has put together a knitting group of about 10 participants.
“we meet monday afternoons and share tea and cookies and work on knitting these 50-cm-by-50-cm squares that are going to go toward nori’s project,” she said.
“it’s a really beautiful project because it invites older adults to be active agents of a future, doing something they love for a greater purpose and for other women. for folks who are aging, their voice in the larger world is often really devalued. i think that when you have leisure programming like knitting and you put a community cause behind it, there is a magic that happens.
“we have had an abundance of donations from the broader n.d.g. community of yarn and knitting needles … from nothing, we now have several baskets full of spools of yarn and 20-something knitting needles.”
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the idea of each square becoming part of the larger square of a blanket is “a really beautiful metaphor,” she said. “there are different colours and different patterns and, all together, i think it’s going to be a very powerful image.
knit & natter, a group that meets thursdays at the montreal west public library, is also participating in bortoluzzi’s project, which it has dubbed blankets of hope: a community knitting project. some knitters work at the library; others knit at home and then drop their squares at the library. most of the wool has been donated and head librarian deborah marcogliese said more donations of wool or yarn and squares for the project are welcomed.
the project is a collaborative effort, with the more experienced knitters “tweaking those squares that aren’t perfect,” said textile artist ann smith, the library’s assistant manager.
“the knitters also invite their friends,” marcogliese said. “we hope to attract younger people and people who want to learn to knit. our knitting group is very keen and i can see them putting together more than one blanket.
“we are putting love into this.”
montreal designer astri prugger has offered to help with the blanket layout and assembly. like everyone involved with the project, she is volunteering her services. she is also knitting squares from wool she purchased over the years “with all kinds of plans that never came to fruition, so now i’m happy to have a reason to use it all up. i haven’t bought any new wool at all.”
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prugger is heartened by the fact that many knitters and crocheters are using skills handed down by their mothers and grandmothers and likes “the symbolism of creating the squares to make the blankets that envelop the families going through this (and) the symbolism of a community coming together.”
one lovely element of the project is that beginners can participate, said riana levy, recreation director at the vista seniors’ residence on côte-st-luc rd. just west of décarie blvd. “it can be someone’s first project ever and they can contribute. it is a huge thing but, when you break it down, it’s so easy to create a 50-by-50-cm square — and, even if one person brings one square, it makes a difference.
“i have seen the power of the socializing around knitting — the power of an art that you love so much and of sitting together and talking,” said levy, who has a weekly knitting and crocheting session on the vista schedule and provides needles and wool along with instruction to those who need or want it. in addition to residents, some of their caregivers are participating.
by late october, levy had provided bortoluzzi with about 40 squares from the vista participants. one contributor is resident bhuvana viswanathan, who has long known how to crochet but learned recently to crochet granny squares — handmade squares that resemble coarse lace — by watching youtube videos. she finds crocheting to be a relaxing experience: “you just let your mind wander.”
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the peter-mcgill community council, a neighbourhood roundtable that brings together various organizations to improve life in montreal’s western downtown area, launched a weekly knitting circle in early november and the plan is to add sessions as needed to make squares, said emma campbell, the council’s food security and co-habitation co-ordinator.
she hopes for those who know how to knit to help those just learning and for presentations on issues of violence against women to be folded into the gatherings.
“we want to educate the community,” campbell said. she wants the knitting circle to include new immigrants as well as members of community groups and clients of chez doris and the refugee centre, both of which are in the peter-mcgill district.
penny rankin, chair of the mission committee of the anglican diocese of montreal, is appealing to churches in the diocese to participate. the committee’s poster promoting the project says it will be “knitting together love, justice and compassion.” st-matthias anglican church in westmount and the anglican diocese office downtown will be drop-off locations for squares.
“this is a reflection on the church engaging with society,” said rankin, a past-president of the montreal council of women who sits on the board of the national council of women of canada. “when it comes to intimate partner violence, there is no community without risk.”
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said linda serpone, president of the montreal council of women, which is also participating in the project: “we try to raise awareness about violence against women and then find an action to take, whether it is raising money for shelters or promoting community-based education about violence.”
two of the four shelters to benefit from the blanket project, chez doris and the native women’s shelter of montreal, are federates of the montreal council of women — community groups that attend council meetings and have voting rights. a couple of federates already have knitting clubs, said serpone, and “some of our women are knitters: as far as our reach will go, we will take it.”
“it’s a colourful ask — not just the fact that you are making blankets, but also its purpose.”
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