Nancy Hall creates mats for Vallejo’s homeless population out of plastic materials. (Photo courtesy of Elly Harkins)

Benicia resident Nancy Hall is a skilled crocheter, but to her knitting is more than just a hobby. She uses her crochet creations for a good cause, namely providing beds for the homeless.

Through using a variety of materials, Hall creates mats to be distributed to volunteer groups that serve Vallejo’s homeless population. This project is just one of several ways she has served as a volunteer. For the past decade, Hall has been part of a group that knits hats and blankets for newborn babies at Sutter Solano Medical Center.

“We’ve done over 6,100 layette sets,“ she said. “We do about 50 a month.”

When not knitting for newborns, Hall works on mats for the homeless at Benicia Senior Center, mostly in an arts and crafts class. She began the project about three months ago when a friend familiar with Hall’s charitable activities told her about an online tutorial she saw on how to create mats out of “plarn”— i.e., plastic yarn. Hall was enthused about the idea and began looking at the materials she needed. One thing that Hall said provided complications for her project was finding the necessary plastic bags. In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 67 which banned single-use plastic bags.

“In this age right now, we don’t have the kind of bags that they said that we needed because we’ve done away with the less expensive lightweight bags,” she said. “I scoured around for those that did have those and got them from different stores.”

Additionally, Hall purchased trash liner bags from Dollar Tree and also utilized other materials like plastic tablecloths and strings them all together. The mats are usually about 3 feet X 4 1/2 feet and take about six days to complete. Hall has made about 16 of them in the last three months.

After the mats are finished, Hall gives them to various people in Vallejo who deliver them to the homeless encampment centers there. One person who has been very involved in the distribution has been her friend Elly Harkins, a volunteer with Vallejo Together.

Hall said the recipients of the mats have been very appreciative of them. She knew the creations were having an impact when she saw a transient man pushing a shopping cart with various items in it. Laid across the top was one of her mats.

“I did a black and white one,” she said, “that’s how I knew it was mine.”

The items have not just been used to sleep on, Hall said. Some people have used them as pillows and others as something to sit down on. Hall also remarked that the mats are very warm, which she noticed during a hot period over the summer.

“I was sitting on my lap and in my shorts and I had this thing over me,” she said. “It was very hot.”

Hall is proud of the time spent creating these items and hopes they will inspire more people to create them.

“I wish there were more people that would do this,” she said. “I’ve heard they’re putting them in shelters now, but there are other uses for it other than just a barrier for the ground.”

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