Crochet: Using Community Resources for Physical Education Equipment

In early 2023 our organization was contacted by the Physical Education and Sports Teachers Association of Zambia (PESTAZ) and were asked to help improve the quality of physical education in their country. One of the goals for the project was to provide equipment. This was a huge need for them as many of the schools are severely underfunded (many of the schools literally have one piece of equipment for all the students to share).

One of the challenges besides funding, according to PESTAZ, was that shipping is not reliable in their country. Part of the reason is because they are landlocked and must rely on other countries’ ports. So we thought “if we can’t ship it there, what if we make it there?”

And that’s when we thought about using textiles. It is something many Zambians have experience with and is durable, affordable, and better for the environment than plastic based equipment. After doing some research online, we ended up contacting a local crochet group (found through a local subreddit post) to see if they were interested in helping us. We needed some guidance on how to make them and to find a good design. It didn’t take much explaining to the group to get them on board!

And this can be done anywhere in the US. There are lots of crochet and knitting communities that use their talents to help others. You can use local resources and online forums to find help for your PE program; reach out to charities that may help your project (ie. Crochet Guild of America and Stitching for Good); ask your colleagues if they crochet; and/or make it a cross disciplinary project (see links at the bottom of this article for examples).

Below is an interview from one of the participants LaDawn Haws and some resources to help you get started.

What design did we select?

“I first tried a simple crochet but the disks were very floppy and I couldn’t get them to fly very well. But by crocheting around a cord core, the disks were a little stiffer and flew better (according to a disc golf enthusiast who test flew them).

I bought yarn from thrift stores, using a mixture of wool, cotton and acrylic; all have different thicknesses and textures, so the stitch sizes are different. I even experimented with buying thrifted sweaters and afghans, which makes the yarn very cheap. But there is time involved in turning a sweater into usable yarn. Same with the hacky sacks. I used dried pinto beans to fill them.”

Weight per disc?

“A few ounces.”

Cost per disc?

“Depends on if you buy new yarn or thrifted and the type of yarn. On the cheap, under $1 per disc; for medium priced new yarn, around $3 per disc (hacky sacks are about 1/4 or 1/5 the yard of the disc).”

How long does it take to make each disc?

“4-6 hours per approximately an 8 inch disk; ones with designs take longer. I ironed them after they were finished off, to flatten them, and smooth out irregularities due to different tension/stitch sizes. Hacky sacks take about 1-1.5 hours to crochet and fill.”

Articles on Building Sports Equipment in Physical Education

Websites for Crochet Patterns

Images

Thank you to Kevin Shephard for sharing this blog post. You can follow his awesome advocacy work, and access a wealth of great resources via supportREALteachers.org, which is an initiative of the Center for Advancement of Standards-based Physical Education Reform (CASPER), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com