Welcome blankets

Welcome blanket

July 4th, roots, and refugees. 

Unless you are an American Indian, you, like me, are the daughter or son of immigrants. My family's immigration story is lost to time. No stories exist of their struggles and difficulties. But I have no doubt that they were real. 

I have no delusions that I am related to royalty or some rich and famous person and, frankly, I find most claims silly. I cannot believe that my ancestors came for the joy of it any more than I can imagine that I am a descendant of Lord So-and-So of Castle Wherever.

My ancestors most likely came to this country for opportunity, as many people still do. But currently too many people aren't leaving their homes because they want to. They're leaving their homelands and families to escape tyranny, hunger and war.

Which brings me to the current refugee crises. I don't know the answer to war, hunger, and despotic lunatics, but I can help support what is surely a difficult transition. One way is through the Welcome Blanket Project.

The Welcome Blanket Project

"The Welcome Blanket Project aims to connect people already living in the United States residents with our country’s new immigrants through stories and handmade blankets, providing both symbolic and literal comfort and warmth. At the same time, the project offers a positive, hands-on way to understand the scope of a 2000-mile border wall and to subvert it from an idea of exclusion to one of inclusion. By participating in this project, people will also come together to talk about immigration policy and how it affects real-live people."

Project leaders wondered whether, instead of thinking about a wall to keep people out, "what if lines of yarn became 3,500,640 yards of blankets to welcome people in?"

They have invited knitters to make a 40" x 40" blanket. By their estimation, a blanket that size would take about 1200 yards, thus requiring about 3,200 blankets to stretch over 2,000 miles. The project provides patterns, a tutorial, and sample 'welcome notes' online.

The project is keeping track of yardage, too. In addition to sending a blanket, knitters send a tag with care instructions and yardage used in the blanket.

Contributors are also asked to enclose a note that welcomes a refugee, shares  their family's immigration story, and offers words of welcome and advice about living in the United States. 

Blanket ready to mail

Here's what I wrote about my family:

Dear Receiver of This Blanket,

This blanket was made by Charlene Marietti, Medford, NJ

My family’s immigration story: 

My ancestors originated in Northern Europe—England, Scotland, France, Switzerland and Germany—and moved west from the Mid-Atlantic region into the Northwest Territory when it opened for settlement. Many were early Ohio pioneers who fought for freedom in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 and took advantage of offers of bounty land granted for military service.

My husband’s Northern Italian ancestors left hunger and the threat of war in the late 19th century to join paesani in western Pennsylvania. Few intended to stay, but they did. They quickly moved to Northeastern Ohio, where most of their descendants still live.

The knit blankets will be displayed in an inaugural show at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago beginning July 18 and running through December 17. After the show closes, the blankets will be distributed to refugees and other immigrants though resettlement organizations. 

My contribution goes in the mail today.