By Latika Lee
Contributing Writer

When the knitting and crochet needles start a’clicking in Powhatan, it isn’t long before the talk starts flowing.

Hour after hour, skein after skein of yarn, the women of Kay’s Crafters catch up on eachother’s lives as they create hand-made items for those in need.

Kay’s Crafters, founded by Powhatan resident Kay Berrey, is part of a larger Henrico-based group, From the Heart.

For the past ten years, the non-profit organization has created handcrafted hats, scarves and blankets to help keep others warm throughout the winter season and beyond.

“We’ve donated nearly 90,000 items to various organizations,” said Lois Moore, founder of From the Heart.“The majority of the items have been for chemotherapy and radiation patients to use during their infusion treatments.The hats and scarves keep them warm when they’ve lost their hair. We also donate bears and blankets to children in burn units who are in pediatric emergency rooms in hospitals and make baby blankets for the NICU and burial outfits for those who don’t survive.”

From the Heart also crafts outfits for teddy bears given to hospices and dialysis centers, sweaters for veterans at Hunter Holmes McGuire Medical Center, blankets for area nursing homes, and mittens and sleeping bags for the homeless. The group even provides padding for animal shelters.

An active grandmother of two, Moore was inspired to knit after seeing a group of fifth graders who were knitting squares into blankets for homeless kids through a national project called “Warm Up America.”

“So I went on the Internet and a lady at a yarn shop in California taught me how to knit online. I started making hats and thought, ‘What can I do with these?’”

Moore turned on the television to catch the end of a broadcast interview with a young lady at Hawthorne House, a cancer resource center at Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital on the Johnston-Willis campus of CJW Medical Center. “They were doing an interview with a young girl who was wearing a terrible hat and I thought I could make better looking hats.”

In the spring of that year, Moore began volunteering with the Massey Cancer Center and started teaching caregivers and patients how to knit. “Unknowingly to me, a nurse had placed an ad asking for volunteer knitters and had given out my telephone number.

At first, I wasn’t keeping track, then I began noting who was calling and why,” Moore said.

“Soon, people would drop off things they had made and bringing by donated yarn. It started coming in faster than what I could handle as one person. It just grew. It’s amazing what has happened. Later, in 2005, we incorporated and became a non-profit.”

Today, From the Heart has nearly 1,000 members who are picking up their knitting needles and crochet hooks for good causes. The women, and a few men, work with hospitals to stitch caps for pre-mature babies and make blankets for pediatric cancer patients. The organization buys undressed teddy bears and makes outfits for them. The yarn or fabric is donated and, occasionally, they receive monetary donations, which allow them to buy materialsm, including needles.

“A lot of the ladies who are doing this are retired,” Moore said. “What we do benefits the folks who receive the item as much as it does the knitter who makes the items.”

Based in Henrico County, From the Heart’s committees inventory, sort, stitch and assemble projects in a facility that houses the donated yarn, supplies and ongoing projects. The organization’s 1,200-square-foot shop, donated by Wilson Properties, resembles a home environment with chairs and rockers set up in a relaxing atmosphere. The group of 20 members donated more than 3,500 items to local individuals in need.

“We don’t tell people what to make. It’s whatever anybody is interested in creating,” Moore said. “The fingers are going as fast as they can to keep up with the need out there. We can find a home for anything anybody makes.

“There’s such a big need that we can use anything that we can get. We’ll probably hit 100,000 [mark] in the summer.”

From the Heart instructors will teach a person to knit or crochet at no charge.

They are also willing to supply the yarn, needles and hooks for volunteers.

Call (804) 305-4971 for more information and locations of area chapters. Information may also be found online at http://www.fromtheheartstichers.org.