Knit It Alls...An Annual Labor of Love

Stacks and stacks of soft, warm and colorful knitted items filled Solid Ground’s meeting rooms in early winter — 3,039 items, to be exact.

Lovingly handmade by volunteers over the course of the year, these cozy hats, mittens, scarves, baby sweaters, blankets and more will end up with families and individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness, helping them stay warm during some of Seattle’s gloomiest months.

For over two decades, Knit-It-Alls (KIA) volunteers from Seattle's Solid Ground’s RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program) have quietly created mountains of warm items. RSVP gathers them all together at the start of the holiday season, then packages and distributes them to nearly 25 local housing programs, food banks and other community organizations. The agencies in turn get them to people in need across King County.

RSVP Program Coordinator Jan Hancock says, “I love this labor of love that happens throughout the year, but culminates with the bagging and distribution of items in late November and early December.”

Knit It Alls makes mountains of items to distribute to homeless people in King County. Items are made from knitting, crocheting, sewing and quilting. Here is a pile of baby sweaters "knitted with love"

Jan also explains that “Knit-It-Alls” is a bit of a misnomer, because donations are not just knitted — they are also crocheted, quilted and sewn. Laid out in neat piles before being packaged for distribution, the items look like candy in a candy store: an explosion of cozy, kaleidoscopic color. My personal favorites are the baby sweaters, which one volunteer described as “miniature works of art.”

Any given year, 30 to 50 volunteers participate — and this year’s more than 3,000 items created and donated is a record!

Thank you, KIA volunteers, for contributing your time, skills, love and art to keep people warm this winter.

If you would like to be a part of this community volunteer effort, contact Jan Hancock at janh@solid.ground.org or call 206-694-6786.