How knitting is helping to rebuild a P.E.I. school playground

Through a craft they've spent decades perfecting, a group of P.E.I. seniors is helping École Evangeline raise money for a new playground.

"The entire park that's there right now is getting quite old and battered, I would say," said Paula Arsenault, co-president of the parents committee at the western P.E.I. school. Post-tropical storm Fiona didn't help last fall. 

To the rescue came a group from Le Chez-Nous, the local seniors' home, who have donated knitting projects for a fundraising auction.

The group regularly knits for charity, auctioning off their projects. This year they chose École Evangeline.

"The school was blown away and they needed a lot of stuff," said knitter Lorraine Gallant, describing the toll from Fiona in September 2022.

Knitting passes the time for her, she added, and the results need to go somewhere.

"I've got to be doing something. I've got to keep busy," Gallant said.

Most of the knitters picked up the craft as young girls. They have decades of experience behind them, and take up their needles regularly to fill the time at Le Chez-Nous.

"I've been knitting for years and years and years — from morning to night, every day," said Alta Arsenault.

She said it's a good feeling to see the results of that work go to a good cause.

Different knitters have different specialties. Lena Arsenault likes to make hats and can fashion one in a few days.

"They're quick to make and there's all kinds of patterns you can make. Some of them are pretty challenging. These ones are pretty basic," Arsenault said of the hats destined for the auction.

"I usually make them with cables and stuff. Those take a little longer because they're more complicated, but these ones — they're very basic. I could make these with my eyes closed."

Lorraine Gallant knits custom teddy bears.