Mainer seeks to aid Afghans

BATH – Halcyon Blake responded to the Sept. 11 and the U.S. military response by collecting yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Blake has been operating Halcyon Yarn, a retail store and mail-order business for 32 years. She’s collecting knitting materials to distribute to Afghan women.

She’s collected 2,000 pounds of yarn and hundreds of needles and hooks that she hopes to send to underprivileged women in refugee camps and in Afghanistan.

“I wanted to respond to what was happening over there,” explained Blake, who has read about the Taliban’s oppression of women. “We need to show these people that we weren’t holding the Afghanistan people responsible for what happened [Sept. 11].”

Blake’s effort was modeled after a similar effort that occurred in the 1990s, when relief organizations distributed knitting needles and yarn to women in Bosnian refugee camps.

Blake publicized her effort in her fall catalog and e-mail list. The response, she said, has been overwhelming.

Deborah Diemer, a weaver and self-described “fiber-holic” from Freedom, says the cause was too good to ignore. “I felt that if I were in that situation, I’d want something to do with my hands,” said Diemer, who drove to Blake’s store with three garbage bags filled with yarn.

George Koebler, of Shelby, Ohio, shipped three barrel-sized pickle crates to Bath.

Several relief organizations have told Blake they are too busy providing basic survival goods to deal with yarn shipments.

But the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan has shown an interest, she said. The group may help her distribute the yarn if she can find someone in Pakistan or Afghanistan to accept the shipment and pay a customs tax.

She expects to hear from a Pakistan-based organization called Cooperation for Advancement, Rehabilitation and Education by the end of August.