Creations That Warm Hands And Hearts

About 10 women participate in the weekly class at the Salvation Army Senior Center, at Trinity Episcopal Church on Sigourney Street in Hartford. The finished projects are then collected by the Community Renewal Team, which distributes them to hospitalized children and elderly shut-ins.

"That lady can do anything, Miss Kathleen can. Anything but fail," said Audrey Brown of Hartford, a member of the crocheting class, which meets Wednesdays. "I have learned to do different stitches and how to read patterns, which is very hard."

In her native Barbados, Shepherd-Hutson learned as a teenager how to crochet and do other handcrafts such as string art, needlepoint and tatting through a club for youngsters. Now a senior citizen, she is passing on her knowledge to other women so they can improve their skills and keep the tradition of crocheting alive.

"You never stop learning," she said. "Every day you can learn something new."

During a recent session, Shepherd-Hutson taught Hartford resident Lois Davis how to cast on - or get started. As a strand of orange and white yarn slid through Shepherd-Hutson's fingers onto a short metal crochet hook, it was transformed into a neat chain stitch.

"Starting seems hard," said Davis, as she watched Shepherd-Hutson rip the stitch out so she could give it a try herself. "I'm having a hard time catching on. I always have help getting started and I want to learn how to do it myself."

Margaretta Rush of Bloomfield joined the class in September and already has learned several stitches, but she still turns to Shepherd-Hutson for advice.

"This is a great teacher right here, especially with me, she's so patient," said Rush, who plans to pass on her newly acquired skills to the girls she works with at an after-school program. "At first I learned a simple chain stitch and when I learned to double stitch, I felt like I should have gotten an award!"

Last year, the Connecticut Children's Medical Center presented the group with a plaque, thanking them for the items they created for the children. The plaque, a source of pride for the group, hangs on the wall in the classroom.