The Old Knitting Factory

Help a single mom turn an old knitting factory in Connemara, Ireland into a childcare-inclusive arts residency for other single parents.

 

Hi, I'm Betsy . For the last year and a half, I've been living in a historic knitting factory in west Ireland, working to purchase the building and turn it into a childcare-inclusive arts residency.

Read my handmade zine about the knitting factory's history and my hopes for its future here.

 

I ran a successful crowdfunding campaign over the last year to raise a 20% down payment on the property. I thought I'd made it, but my mortgage application was recently denied because of my limited personal income and account balances. Now I have only one month, until November 15, to crowdfund the purchase price of the Old Knitting Factor y and make this dream come true, or the current owner will put the property back on the market.

 

If 5,000 people each donate €30, we'll exceed the goal and I'll be able to buy the Old Knitting Factory outright. When that happens, I'll have the financial freedom to finish the renovations I've already begun and to start providing funded, childcare-inclusive residencies for other single parents, as well as offering the residency space as B&B-style accommodation to the public.

 

Ever since my brief brush with homelessness after leaving an abusive marriage, I've dreamed of finding a stable home for myself and my child. When I joined my local single mothers' group, that dream expanded into a vision for a space where other single parents could find peace, healing, and a supported space to create the art that sustains them. I know from first-hand experience how crucial that art practice can be, and how impossible it is to find time for art between the demands of single parenting and paying the bills.

 

This next month is my last chance to make this dream come true, to turn the Old Knitting Factory into a place of rest and creativity for other single parents and their children. I need 5,000 people to donate €30 each, or 1,000 people to donate €150, to cover the remainder of the purchase price and associated fees.

 

Like many parents, I thought I could do everything myself, but it's turned out that I need far more help, far more community support, than I imagined possible. I've been stunned and humbled by the community that has risen up to support the Old Knitting Factory, and if this project succeeds, it will be because of you: the village I've only found through asking for help. I'm asking for your help one more time, and I believe that together we can make this dream come true.

 

Illustration by Ruth Burrows for Notre Dame Magazine