NYC Woman Knits Hats, Scarves For Syrian Refugees Overseas
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Anna Strasser learned to knit when she was 14, and often makes presents for family and friends. But this holiday season, the aspiring theater director used her knitting needles to help strangers in need.
"Being able to do something even if it was just a little thing was important to me,' Strasser said.
Strasser, of New York City, read about a group of Syrian immigrants in Munich who needed hats and scarves to face the harshest winter of their lives. Inspired by their story, Strasser got to work -- knitting 11 brightly-colored hats and a scarf, CBS2's Marlie Hall reported.
"I clicked on the blog post and read the rules and basically picked up my needles and started going," Strasser said.
Strasser and other knitters across the United States and Canada made almost a thousand hats, scarves and other knitwear that were shipped to Germany to help refugees.
The project began two months ago, when knitting designer Laura Nelkin put out the call to fellow hobbyists. A doctor in Munich coordinated the distribution to refugees and photos of the giveaway soon went viral on knitting websites.
"I give away most of the things that I knit anyway and so it felt like a pretty natural thing for me to do," Strasser said.
The project, based out of the U.S., is drawing to a close after increased involvement from European-based knitters.