Knitwear that weaves bonds

It’s amazing what you can accomplish by putting leftover wool end to end.

These days, the people of Saint-Basile are discovering “urban knitwear” that adorns the city’s trees. The colorful and multicolored patterns bring a little cheerfulness to these dimly lit days.

Behind these decorations, as you can imagine, there are thousands of hours of knitting. You have to put a lot of care into it, if you have a little pride. We don’t want to let our crookedly dressed tree stand out on the main street.

“Knitting was therapy,” Huguette Coupal-Laliberté told me. At 87, she had just lost the man she lived with for more than 60 years. It leaves a void. She was looking forward to meeting her gang of knitters every Sunday under the gazebo of a park, talking, laughing, exchanging technical advice between experts.

The idea of ​​urban knitting was that of Marie-Josée Dumas, from the horticulture service of Saint-Basile-le-Grand. She had seen this type of project elsewhere and found that in addition to dressing “her” trees, it could weave more than just pieces of wool.

She contacted the local Farmers’ Circle, which took the matter in hand.

Yes sir, the Farmers’ Circle.

There may not be any farmers in Saint-Basile, but there is still a “Circle”, like almost everywhere in Quebec – including Montreal.

M^me Coupal-Laliberté nevertheless specifies that before pursuing a career as a teacher, she lived on a farm and knows how to milk a cow. But that’s about the strongest farming background in this group.

It was at the time, not so long ago, when Brossard was still a vast field. At 16, on rue de la Pinière, she taught in a “rank school” to 29 students from surrounding farms. Twenty-nine children of seven grades in the same class, I should add, to whom she had to provide the books. It was 1952.

“They paid us $100 a month, no taxes.

— Why no tax?

— At only $100, they weren’t going to take any more away from us! »

We talked a little about the strike. “Education will never be easy. But now, we need to educate parents in addition…”

We talked about the time when women took not only the last name, but also the first name of their husband to introduce themselves officially.

“I tell you that we women have come a long way. »

I’m moving away from knitting, you might say, but knitting is never just knitting. It doesn’t take long for us to start chatting about all sorts of things, and that’s how we lose track.

There weren’t many rules. For the reasons, it was very free jazz. For wool, we had to buy nothing: we recycled the old stock. Notice, when we take the old leftover wool, want, want not, it makes patterns free jazz and it’s perfect.

As for the Cercles de fermières, in case you don’t know, these organizations bringing together more than 26,000 members in Quebec specialize, among other things, in the transmission of artisanal textile techniques. There is therefore an expertise and a work force there which just needed to be mobilized.

“I was attracted to quilting techniques,” Suzanne Loiselle, a retired teacher, told me. Unfortunately, her management skills quickly diverted her from it and she became president.

Founded in 1915, the Circles are groups whose aim was “to improve the living conditions of women and families” and “to preserve and transmit cultural and artisanal heritage”.

Originally, the government pursued several goals. The two main ones, according to a 1928 document: “attach the woman to her home by making it pleasant and easy for her to fulfill her duties as a wife, educator and housewife. And keep our boys and girls in the nourishing land by making rural life more attractive and more prosperous for them.”

We also wanted to promote popular education, learning better agricultural practices and strengthening bonds of solidarity. But also “to maintain control over women, at a time when many were going to work in spinning mills in the United States, and the priests did not like that because American women were less controlled by the Church… Let’s say that since , we are witnessing a total turnaround! “, said M^me Loiselle.

The whole group bursts out laughing.

Today, the Circles continue to pass on artisanal techniques, and seeing the busy schedule – two activities per day – there is no shortage of hands.

Every year, they put on a “gift exhibition” where the works are sold. Money is collected for various causes: OLO, Mira, women’s shelters, fight against homelessness.

Through all of this, they kept their other great specialty: “we break the isolation,” says M.^me Loiselle. “I describe myself as a feminist, but the Circles don’t use the word. We take to heart the situation of women in general. »

Participants wrote to her to say how much good this project had done them. One fought her insomnia. The other was a second cancer. Yet another recovered from depression.

“We talk about things that we don’t talk about elsewhere, without disturbing anyone, without judgment,” Suzanne Huot, a former bank employee, told me. […] We make life easier. »

They were targeting 19 trees, but we dressed 39 of them.

“When we work as a team, we can do a lot of things, with each person’s talents. »

Nice things, other than that, I would say.