• To Read: KNITTING INTO THE MYSTERY: A guide to the shawl-knitting ministry by Susan S. Jorgensen and Susan S. Izard

Knit one, purl two the Christmas-at-Sea program needs you

If you can knit and enjoy spreading joy during the holiday season, then the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey’s Christmas-at-Sea program is for you.

For more than a century, Christmas-at-Sea has rallied knitters year-round to make scarves, caps, socks and vests for mariners and seafarers who work throughout the holiday season in harsh temperatures on the decks of container ships, tow boats and barges to bring us the basic items of everyday life. It’s a fact that most seafarers come from tropical to temperate countries and are unprepared for frigid winter weather.

“The Institute and our volunteer knitters realize and appreciate that mariners working far from families and home are the people who bring to us the commodities we take for granted -- our morning orange juice and coffee, the car we drive, the road salt that will make the winter road less slippery, etc.” said Barbara Clauson, director of Christmas-at-Sea. “Their loneliness must be particularly acute during the holiday season when we are in our warm homes exchanging gifts that probably arrived in this country by ship. These gifts express our gratitude and our concern for them...it is our way of saying thank you.”

Clauson said nearly 4,000 people across the nation, are currently knitting from one to 100 pieces a year. They consist of groups meeting in churches, senior centers or in retirement housing facilities. However, she stressed that knitting is not exclusive to seniors: “There are young people growing a new skill, young career women who are fighting stress, inmates at a women’s prison and even a few men. There is one man in Florida who makes the most beautiful cables on his vests and we also have a fair amount of blind knitters.”

At this time, five specific patterns are being used that can be downloaded at http://www.seamenschurch.org/ and there are two cautions when selecting yarn color.

“First -- the person receiving the gift will probably be a young man -- so please avoid colors normally reserved for women and babies. There are women who work at sea, but it is impossible to get a pink hat into feminine hands. Second -- we prefer the garments to be without stripes.  They look best when the yarn used is the same throughout the garment. Colors need not be dark. I know how most knitters hate working on dark yarn.  You can use beige, grey, blues, greens, etc,” said Clauson.

Some knitters have included their name or parish and have received letters of appreciation from distant corners of the world:

“Thank you for the gifts that you have sent us to our ship that helps a lot to warmth our body in this freezing time of winter season. I wish you too, a very, very Merry Christmas.”-- Seaman aboard the Qatari Ibn Alfyja'a 

"Thank you very much for the thought of caring for us ... Thank you very much for your understanding with our job ... Thank you very much for the happiness you have given us this Christmas -- Thank you very much for all the efforts you have rendered for this tasks...Thank you very much for all the time you have spent with ALL OF THESE ... and mostly...Thank you very much for all the love bestowed in DOING ALL THESE.” -- Officers and Crew of the M.V. Pysix 

“I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who don't know us but who do all this work to give us an unforgettable Christmas.  Your efforts really helped us have a nice day. We sail this ship with Dutch, Filipino and Indonesian crew.  So every culture has its own way of celebrating a feast like this. But here on board we mix it all to a very nice day in which we try to come closer to each other.” -- The Master of the P&O Nedlloyd Jakarta     

For further information and to get started, contact Clauson at 212-349-9090 or email: cas@seamenschurch.org.

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