Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Mimi Wallace of Blacksburg knits an 8-inch “Hokie Square” along with other knitters at Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg on Thursday. Knitters from around the country are taking part in the Hokie Healing project to create afghan throws for victims and the families of victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Want to help?

• To donate to the Hokies Healing blanket project, knit 8-by-8-inch squares by May 31 and bring them to the Mosaic Yarn Shop at 880 University City Blvd.
• To get more information, call Gina Bonomo at 961-4462 or go to mosaicyarn.blogspot.com

BLACKSBURG -- A corkboard on a brick wall inside Gina Bonomo's yarn shop showcases the beginning of what the 30-year Blacksburg resident calls the best kind of comfort.

Pinned into the soft, brown cork are numerous 8-by-8 inch squares -- some orange and marked with faint VT logos, some solid fire-engine red, others black-and-white striped.

They're soon-to-be bits of blankets that Bonomo and the legions of volunteers she hopes to amass will stitch to create gifts for families of the victims of the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings.

The squares have come from local residents and from people around the world who want to be part of the Hokie Healing campaign.

"You can't feed the world, but if you make a square, it can turn into a blanket to wrap someone up in comfort," Bonomo said. "At the same time, we're all healing as we knit these."

Knitters often use their craft for charity, she said, so at 4 a.m. about a week after the shootings, the idea hit her.

The next day, Bonomo burst into her Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg with posters promoting the ultimate form a charity -- knitters could unite, donating squares throughout May and coming together in June to patch them together.

"She just came in with posters and said, 'This is what we can do,' " said employee Belinda Ierardi, who has created a pattern of a heart and Hokie tracks for some of her squares.

In the first 48 hours, people from 12 separate states contacted her, offering shiny skeins of yarn, needles and their handmade swatches. Now, volunteers from across the world have offered squares and supplies.

"I am making a sweater and socks, and I'm putting it all aside, and I'm just working on squares right now," Ierardi said.

Bonomo credits the campaign's word-of-mouth success to the Internet and to the passion of feverish knitters.

"This is something tangible that you can do to make yourself feel better," she said. "Every stitch is knitted with thought in mind of where it's going to go."

Christine Guilman, who knits so often she'll take up her swatches during a phone call, has been on the hunt for the perfect patterns to facilitate healing.

When she moved to Blacksburg six years ago, she said the town felt like home within two days.

After the shootings, she said she's been thinking about her own safety, but mostly has felt pain for those who experienced direct loss.

She plans to knit two or three squares for each of the blankets.

Even for novice knitters, the small square should take only about an hour to make, she said.

To Guilman, knitting is healing, a way to pour her love for the victims of the tragedy into something useful.

"It's almost like doing yoga, or dance or something similar to that in that you become adept at what you're doing so therefore ... you do it without much thought, so instead of putting all the thoughts into what you're doing, you become one with it," she said.

Students are taking the time to knit, too, Bonomo said. They get lessons, needles and yarn for free from the shop to complete the blanket squares.

To make 33 blankets, including one for the family of shooter Seung-Hui Cho, more than 2,000 squares are needed.

No one knows what has arrived. They just keep stacking those they don't display in boxes.

But they don't plan to stop making blankets.

Bonomo wants to send blankets to victims, including those still in the hospital. They could extend the healing effort to children of the Tech professors who died. The first 33 blankets will be sent to parents or spouses. That all depends on how many squares and how many stitching volunteers assemble.

Before the blankets are mailed to victims' families, Bonomo plans to have them displayed in museums in New York and Washington.

She won't say what museums have shown interest, but tells visitors to her blog that they are "very high profile."

Guilman said she sees displaying the blankets as a way to spark people's creativity and continue healing for the world.

"I think that when you start with an idea like this and more and more people become aware of it, then more ideas grow out of it."