Please join us at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka at 6:30 p.m., Friday, September 9th for our next talk in our Museum After Hours series.

Stacie Petersen, Registrar of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, presents “Do Your Bit—Knit!” Thousands of people unable to serve in the military picked up their needles and knitted for loved ones and their nations during World War I. Stacie Petersen addresses the history of knitting during World War I.

In conjunction with this program, Yak’n Yarn, a Topeka yarn store in Fairlawn Plaza, will be donating balls of yarn to the first 40 knitters and crocheters. They will be asked to knit or crochet 8 inch squares and to drop these off at the Historical Society or Yak’n Yarn before or on October 14, the next program in this series. Yak’n Yarn will assemble these into lap robes that will be donated to veterans at the Veterans Administration. The completed lap robes will be displayed at the November 18 program in this series.

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The program started as a one-time event at the National World War I Museum but has developed into a group that meets on a semi-regular basis.  The next program at the WWI Museum in Kansas City is in October:

-Saturday, October 1, 2016, 10:30 a.m.–Mrs. Wilson’s Knitting Circle–National World War I Museum and Memorial, Kansas City

Come do your bit – knit! Just as then, knitting is a way to share comfort and bring a community of friends together to talk, laugh and create. Whether just starting out or an expert able to share your knowledge, join us for a quick history lesson and free WWI era specific pattern. BYONY (bring your own needles and yarn). Your own projects are welcome! Free to the public with RSVP.

For those casting about for programs that might be successful in your community, this might be a possibility.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

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Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.