These Ukrainian youngsters are showing off their new hats — woolen caps woven by fifth-graders in Peoria, Illinois, and sent as gifts to the children in an orphanage in Kramatorsk. Their city is in eastern Ukraine, in the midst of current fighting with Russia.
Yarn for these hats came to Peoria from Casa Ursulina in Chile and from our spinning partners around the world in Rwanda. In all, at least some of the yarn traveled close to 20,000 miles!
Weaving Chilean and Rwandan yarn into hats is a project of KidKnits — a Peoria-based family endeavor dedicated to service learning and concern for people living in poverty throughout the world. Casa Ursulina is one of two providers of handspun wool yarn to KidKnits.
The idea for sending the hats to the children in the orphanage came from Kyle, a member of the class who was himself adopted from there when he was 2. The class also sent personal greeting cards to the children (seen in photo).
More photos below show the Ukrainian children celebrating their new hats and their new friendship with youngsters halfway around the world.
