In January 2017 I began as a volunteer at a psychiatric ward
I was invited by Søren Magnussen, a former patient who devoted all his time to bring different kind of small creative havens in the psychiatic wards.
I came with my basket with yarn and knitting needles.
I came without any expectations and knowing that when you are dealing with fx. very depressed people, its varying if activities are possible.
I know. I’ve been depressed myself.
I have experienced days where it was impossible to lift my arms.
Days that just have to go by hoping that the next day would bring some oxygen and light.
Days where the knitting was too unmanageable and other days where the simple and monotonous movements of the knitting needles was the one thing that just lifted me a little bit.
Just enough to make the day a little brighter.
Just enough to make my stroke my hand over the knitting and find that I was still here and that I had made something this day.
The last year I have spend many hours in psychiatric wards with my basket.
And how do I do it?
First of all – I can do it because Søren and the hospital has made the it possible.
To me its first of all about people and the presence that I can create around the knitting.
I’ll find a place in the livingroom. Unpack the yarn and needle.
Sometimes there is people in the room and most of the time others will join us.
Some already know how to knit and some don’t.
Some want to learn and others just want to sit next to us and be a part of our community
Some have just been admitted to hospital, others are are on their way home.
But right here and right now we are just people together.
A little sensory ball
I have made a tiny ball, that you can knit in 2 hours. In that way you can finish you knitting even it you just learned to knit.
You fill it with wool and a little lavender, in that way you can use the ball as a sensory ball that can get you small stimulation impulses from the good yarn and the delicate fragrance.
Tiny impulses that might wake the senses in a quite and kind way?
