Good Deeds Mitten-Maker Helps Others With A Hands-On Approach Every Year, Ethel Bassett Knits Hundreds Of Pairs

Ethel Bassett sits in a comfortable armchair with a radio on one side, a small table piled high with yarn on the other. Above her, a framed quotation from Proverbs 31:13 reads, “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.”

The Bible verse might well have been written with Bassett in mind. The 90-year-old woman knits hundreds of pairs of mittens each year, and gives them all away to needy children.

Every year, they go to Sunset Hill Baptist Church, where children choose from the rows of brightly colored mitts. The rest are given to children at the Spokane Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Center. Throughout the winter, Ethel sees children wearing her work.

This year, she completed 250 pairs.

“It’s never been a labor, it’s a joy,” says the soft-spoken woman. “I feel like I’ve done more for myself than for anyone else.”

Others disagree. Her pastor at Sunset Hill calls her a precious lady. Sue Hille, coordinator for SCAN, sees the pure delight when the mittens are distributed at a Christmas party each year. The mittens, and knitted hats contributed by fellow parishioner Mary Evans (who is a story in her own right), often wind up the favorite item of the children who each get a stocking fat with toys and goodies.

“Invariably, the mittens or the hat are the first things that get pulled out and put on,” says Hille. “One mother, she couldn’t get the mittens off her daughter when she tried to put her to bed that night. She just loved those mittens.”

Like a stuffed animal, the mittens are a comfort. “They’re soft and real,” Hille said. “And there’s something about handmade things that even a small child can appreciate.”

Bassett learned to knit about 50 years ago.

She made sweaters, argyle socks, even a dress for herself. But nary a mitten.

It wasn’t until her husband died in 1987 that she started her mitten mission as a way to pass time.

Since then, she’s completed 1,350 pairs.

“I hate the cuffs more than anything,” Bassett said. “It’s the slowest part.”

Half of Bassett’s days are spent on those hand-crafted treasures. She can finish two pairs in a day if she has time, taking only a half-hour here or there to watch the news or “Jeopardy,” or a few hours to play bridge.

A spare bed is covered with skeins of yarn - about two dozen. She uses only Wintuk brand. It’s the softest.

Bassett looks at the jumble - what she calls her junk yard - and sees 50 pairs of new mittens.

Bassett buys most of the yarn herself, though she’s received contributions over the years. She’s never charged for a pair of mittens, even when a woman called her after seeing an article in a Colfax newspaper and asked for mittens for her two grandchildren.

Bassett got out her needles, went to work and sent the mittens out the next day.

She’ll turn 91 in January. Any chance she’ll get a pair of mittens as a present?

“No,” she said sheepishly, “I wear gloves.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo