A New Hope: Wrapping the World in Welcome

Originally, the project was designed to recast the 2000-mile distance of the proposed barrier wall between Mexico and the United States into 2000 miles of handmade blankets. Representing the distance of the wall in lengths of yarn, participants across the United States and around the world created lap blankets and accompanying notes of welcome for new refugee neighbors. This craft-based response to the former administration’s policies quickly exceeded our goal with over 8000 Welcome Blanket packages made and gifted.

Our commitment to just immigration policy and welcoming our newest neighbors is bigger than a singular response to one president or administration. Taking part in Welcome Blanket is a tangible way to recognize and celebrate our global humanity and to uphold a foundational premise that immigration is vital for the continuing vibrancy of our society and growth of our nation.

Through this project, we have developed an international network of people sharing stories and symbols of warmth. The act of hand making (knitting, sewing, quilting,crocheting, weaving, felting, etc.,) a blanket and then writing down our individual immigration/migration/relocation stories shift the paradigm of our newest waves of “refugees” from “others” to “one of us.” It celebrates our complex individual and collective narratives. It stitches our individual histories to our shared future. Stitch by stitch, it knits us together. 

Welcome Blanket connects people across time and space through our diversity, individual histories, and shared humanity. We are thrilled to announce our new goal as we continue our call to act on behalf of immigration and relocation: Let’s blanket the circumference of the earth (24,901 miles that connects us all) with 36,521 blankets and notes.

My hope is for Welcome Blanket to become a new American tradition and for every refugee family to receive this symbolic and practical gesture. Will you join me?

-Jayna Zweiman