Handmade with love

In a quiet corner at a top-floor shop in Golden Mile Food Centre, five friends are busy churning yarns into granny squares. These squares need to be exactly 20cm on each side - 54 squares are then joined together to create a blanket.

Using milk cotton yarns, each square takes about 11/2 hours to crochet. And making one blanket can take as long as 20 days.

It is a labour of love and exactly what Madam Carolynne Ng, 49, had in mind when she organised charity project Blanket Of Love - where volunteers make blankets that go to seniors at a nursing home.

The Man Fut Tong Welfare Society vice-president said: "These handmade blankets are a symbol of love for our seniors in our community, through the volunteers' hard work and time spent on the blankets."

Two different types of blankets can be contributed - crochet and patchwork blankets. With Covid-19 still around, volunteers could not gather in large groups. The project allowed them to contribute individually, or with their families.

Yarn shop owner Jassandra Nay, 26, uses her shop in Golden Mile Food Centre as a yarn distribution and blanket collection point. Volunteers drop off their squares or completed blankets there. She has donated 500 skeins of yarn to the project.

Ms Nay works full time as a business development executive at a small firm and spends her evenings at the shop, which she opened in September.

She said she was spurred to start the shop as crocheting grew in popularity amid the pandemic but many beginners did not know how to start and where to get advice.

Her shop focuses on providing affordable yarns and much-needed advice for those new to the craft.

Ms Nay and her four friends at the shop, ranging in age from 37 to 54, were brought together by a love for crocheting. The group meet for dinners and hang out together frequently.

"We have celebrated birthdays, festive seasons and accompanied each other through the many ups and downs of our daily lives," said Ms Nay.

As the friends worked on their squares, a volunteer walked into the shop to deliver a crochet blanket she completed over 20 days.

Madam Madeline Tam, who is in her 70s, also bought 30 skeins of yarn for her next blanket, after getting advice on how to match the colours for it.

More than 200 volunteers have contributed to the project.

Madam Xie Yi Shan, 41, made four patchwork blankets with help from her two sons and a daughter. The housewife had seen a call for volunteers on a Facebook sewing group. It was her first time making a patchwork blanket.

Her sons helped cut and sew the squares together and her daughter sorted and arranged them on the floor in a manner which was visually appealing. Not all agreed with the arrangements at first - they had different ideas on how the squares should be laid out, from colour coordination to patchwork pattern.

"But after completing the blankets, the kids were especially proud to see how their effort transformed to something that will benefit others, that can keep someone warm and snuggly," she said.

The blankets also made it into the Singapore Book of Records for the largest display of handmade blankets. A total of 294 blankets were made - 92 crochet blankets and 202 patchwork blankets.

They have been handed over to Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home, where they will be cleaned - a second round in the case of the patchwork blankets - and distributed to the elderly at the home.

Madam Ng said: "We really wanted to see the smiles on the senior citizens' faces as they receive their blankets. But due to Covid-19 restrictions, visiting the home is currently not advised.

"It is our wish that these handmade blankets will provide the seniors in the nursing home with a sense of emotional comfort, bringing them back to their youth where they used to have all their items handmade by loved ones."

Nabihah Fadilah Mohd Faizal, 15, who took part in the project with her mother and elder sister, said: "I hope the elderly residents of the nursing home enjoy the blanket that we made and that it would keep them warm."

Inspired, the three made another blanket as a birthday gift for Nabihah's grandmother.