What is Tight-Knit?...

Tight-Knit originated as a Girl Scout Gold Award project in 2022 and has since been growing as an organization. It aims to address the effects of homelessness, such as those of climate change on homeless populations, as well as of vital respect and dignity. 

To tackle the effects of this dangerous cold directly, I hand-knitted fifty adult-size hats, permanent and durable providers of warmth, for homeless people in Florida. This also addresses the issue of the common lack of care given to homeless peoples; by providing hand-made hats, made with love, these individuals in our community will feel a *tight-knit* sense of care. I have partnered with Showering Love, an incredible organization that provides mobile showers to the homeless in South Florida, to make sure these hats and more are able to reach their target audience of homeless populations in my community. 

And then there's this website right here, which ensures the project's sustainability through education. I am able to teach a much wider audience about Showering Love's mission, the climate crisis and its effects on homeless populations, the personal benefits of knitting, and even teach people how to knit! Regarding the "teach people how to knit" focus, I have created step-by-step guides to hat making, both as a visual flyer and as a walk-through YouTube video, to demonstrate how to knit a hat on a circular loom. This way, people anywhere and everywhere can knit additional hats and join the mission! 

Lastly, I am hosting community events to share this knitting lesson, discuss these issues live, emphasize the Showering Love and Tight-Knit missions, and show audiences how to navigate the website. This will be an additional way to ensure that more communities become educated and more populations can benefit. 

Through these various prongs of the project, I invite others to join the Tight-Knit mission and help make lasting change, newly educated on the issues and with yarn in hand!