Knitters Lend Support to Victims of Domestic Violence

When a woman seeks safety at an area domestic violence shelter, she is given a small token of comfort in the form of a scarf on that first night, thanks to a quiet good Samaritan in .

“It is given in those first few days as a sign of comfort and support from other women—to celebrate her taking that difficult first step, to just let her know that other women are supporting her, and prayers and love have been knitted into every stitch,” founder Barb Kochuba said. “This is something that resonates.”

A woman in Scotland sends her own donations of scarves every month. Women around the region donate scarves as well, some including tags that state, “You are stronger than you know.”

But Kochuba doesn’t take credit for the coordination because she says it’s all out of her control, and in God’s hands.

With continuous donations throughout the first year, which she is now completing, a total of 2,027 knitted items have been donated to six different shelters in the area. Comfort Scarves regularly produces 80 scarves a month with the help of knitters all over the world.

Each package comes with an individual, one of a kind, handmade scarf, along with a note that describes the beauty of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, encouraging the woman to move forward in her life. The note also tells each woman about the Comfort Scarves community—ensuring her that she is not alone.

“It takes a lot to make that step,” she said. “Most of these women have never received a handmade gift.”

Boxes of scarves from loyal knitters fill Kochuba’s living room for November as she prepares for the holiday season. The project began over the summer of 2010 after Kochuba picked up knitting to alleviate her own case of empty nest syndrome, along with an activity to complete during Steeler games. After she discovered a similar program in Los Angeles online that gave scarves to victims of domestic violence, Kochuba was inspired.

“I’ve always been the social ministry type of person at my church,” she said. “I started different programs that could be passed on.”

As an active member of in Forest Hills, Comfort Scarves seemed like the perfect project.

“I sent out an email to everyone on my list and said, ‘Does anyone knit or have an interest?’ All of these people I have known for years and never knew they knit started writing back and I started hearing from people I didn’t even know,” Kochuba said.

Over the summer of 2010, she started collecting scarves and coordinated with the first shelter, Womansplace, which receives 12 to 15 new women through its doors every month. At the same time, a woman contacted Kochuba about donating to New Beginnings, a shelter for homeless women in Homewood.

In October 2010, the first donations were sent out, with 15 scarves sent to Womansplace and 10 to New Beginnings.

Since then, Kochuba joined an online knitting community called Ravelry, where knitting groups around the world can connect.

“There is every group ever in the world on the site—for every TV show on, one for every political persuasion, Knit Black and Gold, Penguins, Knittany Lions, ones in Japan and Africa,” she said. “I started a group on the site, posted it and had 52 members in two days. I have met the most incredible group of people from there.”

After making the online connection that resulted in boxes and boxes of donated scarves, Kochuba decided to take on a holiday project last year that would give every single person in the shelters she serves a new item.

“I got 300 items, ranging from fleece scarves, hats, mittens, fashion scarves,” she said. “People who knit and crochet in this world—they’re the most generous people.”

After different projects fell into her lap like blessings one after another over the year, the Comfort Scarves community continued to grow, allowing her to serve several shelters today as she prepares for the second holiday project.

And for Kochuba—it’s also about education and giving support to women who need it most.

“It’s a very sobering statistic that every single month, just in this little part of Southwestern Pennsylvania, every single month, 80 new women are victims of domestic violence—victims that are seeking shelter—that doesn’t include the women too afraid to seek it,” she said. “Eighty scarves a month.”

For more information or to get involved, visit the Comfort Scarves Facebook page here, or visit www.comfortscarves.org.

This story originally appeared on Forest Hills-Regent Square Patch