Bolivian Knitters Help Heal Hearts

The indigenous Aymara women of Bolivia have knitting as part of their heritage, but now they are able to use old skills in a new way by helping make medical devices to save the lives of children born with holes in their hearts.

The device, known as Nit Occlud, was designed by Franz Freudenthal, a cardiologist in La Paz. It looks like a little top hat knit out of wire and can be made in different sizes to block a hole in the heart.

It’s made of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy, and can be collapsed and inserted into the body through a catheter. It’s only expanded when it gets where it needs to go, making the procedure minimally invasive and inexpensive, which is a must in Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America and a place without enough cardiac doctors to treat kids with heart problems, which can also be more serious in the high altitudes.

It takes about two hours working in a clean room to knit a device, and knitter Daniela Mendoza told the BBC she’s glad to be able to help.

“We are very happy, we are doing something for someone so they can live,” she said.

[Photo via BBC.]

Next Pattern:

Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

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