Keisha, a 43-year-old single mother with an eleven-year-old son, lives just three blocks from Interim House, in the same neighborhood where she grew up. After she was kicked out of her father's home because of her alcohol use, Keisha entered Interim House. She had heard about Interim House from a woman at Alcoholics Anonymous.
Interim House's Therapeutic Knitting Group was a perfect fit for Keisha. "I crocheted all the time. All my life I crocheted. When I was in addiction, I put it down and didn't crochet anymore. I went eight or nine years without crocheting." Although a former crocheter, Keisha has always been afraid to knit. Now she knits all the time. She makes pocketbooks, scarves, hats, and blankets. She also decorates sandals, belts, headbands, bracelets, and earrings. Keisha describes what happens during knitting group:
"We all get together and the knitting teacher has other, older ladies who are knitters and they assist us. We all work on our own projects and we go around the room and we share what we're working on and who it is for. The teacher takes pictures of our projects and she has a website that shows our work. Afterwards, the teacher serves snacks she made, and we talk. We talk about things that are bothering us, things that are on our mind, things that we're going through, our recovery, and what we have in common with one another.
Knitting helps us to open up. Knitting is healing and therapeutic. Knitting helps me learn about myself, gives me confidence and helps me cope with stress. It's very calming, very healing. It makes me more alert of my surroundings. I'm more observant, I can hear more. Even though I'm knitting, I can be in a room with people and I can hear the conversations. I can go right on in and know what everyone is talking about. Knitting makes me more mindful.
Also with the knitting, when you're first learning, you make mistakes and it doesn't come out how you want; you want your mistakes to still be okay, and that applies to life. Even if things don't go the way you want, you work through your mistakes. It gives me confidence. It's okay, keep striving on. With knitting if you make mistakes, you don't pull it apart, you just keep going. Perseverance, keep on."
Keisha enjoys the additional benefits of knitting: helping others and being able to earn extra income. She also likes to knit gifts for others. She says, "Part of recovery and staying clean and sober and being grounded is service. When you're knitting for other people, you're healing. The other person recieves something nice and it's healing for them too." Keisha says that without knitting her recovery from alcoholism would have been different and more difficult. "I'm used to having a bottle or cup in my hand. Now, I have knitting in my hands. It's energy in my hands."
