A group of parishioners at St. Mary Parish in Buffalo Grove is looking to hook a few more people on the joys of crocheting for a cause. The women have spent the last year or so crocheting sleeping mats for homeless people out of plastic grocery bags, using a pattern they got from a similar group at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Palatine. The mats are 6 feet long and 3 feet wide, and take between 500 and 800 individual bags, which must first be cut into strips and knotted into yarn. Jane Sherlock, the community concerns chair for the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, brought the idea to St. Mary, and now that a group of about 30 parishioners are involved, she’s trying to spread it further. “These do take many hours,” she said, and having more people means more mats. Mats in demand She has so far dropped off 28 of the mats at Cornerstone Community Outreach, 4628 N. Clifton Ave., which operates shelters for men, women and families. The last time, as she was carrying the mats in to the shelter, a woman on the street asked if she could have one. “I told to her to come in, and I was sure she could have one,” Sherlock said. “But when we got inside, the woman said I shouldn’t have said that because they have a waiting list a mile long.” Lyda Jackson of Cornerstone said outreach workers take the mats to people who are sleeping outdoors, because those in the shelters don’t need them. “They give them to people who sleep in a loading dock or in a park or wherever,” she said. “They give them some protection from the moisture.” Sherlock wants to help more by adding to the mat-crocheting roster. The St. Mary group gets together every week to cut, make yarn and crochet together at the home of member Inge West, Sherlock said. The sessions provide a social outlet for the workers, including the hostess, who was widowed before the efforts began. When West volunteered her home, Sherlock said, she didn’t know how to crochet and thought hosting would be a good way to contribute. But she has learned how to do it and become a proficient mat-maker. Other non-crocheters help by cutting the strips and making the yarn. Some volunteers work on their own, Sherlock said, and drop off finished mats. Once the group got the basic skills down, they started making colorful designs and patterns, using different colored bags from different stores. Some are striped, some zigzagged and one is polka dotted. “We have a lot of fun,” Sherlock said. “And we’re using something people throw away to help people who need a place to sleep. There are homeless people everywhere in the United States.” Help from service day The St. Mary group got a jumpstart last spring when the mat project was one of the options for a parish-wide service day. Volunteers were supplied with bags from parishioners who brought them in response to a notice in the bulletin. The group uses only clean bags, either donated new from stores or from the homes of donors. It does not use bags taken out of recycling bins, because they might be dirty, Sherlock said. More St. Mary parishioners will get a chance to help Nov. 21 when the parish holds a service day. Mat-making will be one of the service projects included.