Inside the Barking Buffalo Cafe, Salgado Fenwick's locally made clothing hangs on racks around the shop, the rousing smell of freshly brewed coffee lingers in the air, and Christmas music fills the space, providing the soundtrack to a frenzy of after-hours activity soundtrack to the winter apparel being made right there in the middle of the shop. It's 7:00 p.m. and normally the cafe would be closed, but tonight maker bees have taken it over. They sit, chat, and create, their knitting needles clicking together, crochet hooks of all colours pulling yarn down and through, down and through—scarves, mitts, and toques are beginning to take shape.

"I know of the Alberta Yarn Project's Crafts and Draughts," says Marissa Loewen, creator of the Warm Woolies for Syrian Refugees project. "I thought, Well, they get together and knit so what a great opportunity this would be if we all came together as little maker bees and made scarves, hats, and mitts for the refugees." She sits in the centre of the group, smiling, laughing, crocheting a grey scarf. "I always think about a friend of mine who moved here from South Africa a few years ago. He said the best thing you can do for someone coming to Edmonton is give them a toque, a good set of mitts, and wish them well … That's the ultimate warm welcome."

With between 2,500 to 3,000 Syrian refugees expected to arrive in Alberta by February 2016 and around 1,500 of those refugees resettling in Edmonton, Marissa Loewen and her fellow maker bees are busy trying to knit and crochet 1,500 sets of toques, mitts, and scarves to help welcome the new Edmontonians.

"We've been doing this sort of warm woollies collection for the past few years as a part of our On the Spot Pop Ups," Marissa explains. "So this isn't something that is entirely new. We just look at it as more of a concentrated effort to come up with 1,500 by the end of February."

Because the refugees are expected to join the Edmonton community during the coldest winter months, Marissa jokes about attaching a picture of what the River Valley looks like in the summer to the woollies as if to say, Welcome to Edmonton, it will get warmer. Marissa is hoping to attach a note with each set that reads, "These were made for you by people who care and want you here."

Marissa's determination to help the newcomers feel more at home was also spurred by some of the negative comments she had been reading online. "I'd read about the refugees coming," Marissa explains, "and there was a lot of negativity and fear and kind of a lot of untruths about what it meant to Canadians." If a refugee is confronted with negativity, Marissa hopes they'll reach for their newly knitted scarf and think about the people in Edmonton who "are excited to have them as a neighbour, and are really excited to welcome them to our community."

The enthusiastic support Marissa's project has received shows just how welcoming the Edmonton community truly is. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul has offered to make sure that the refugees receive their welcome gifts, and as of November 25, Warm Woolies for Syrian Refugees has received donations of more than seventy scarves, around forty toques, and three hundred US dollars.

"We've had Americans donate money to the cause to pay for wool because they are in the midst of their own don't-come-here saga, and they just want to be able to support," Marissa says, the grey scarf she's crocheting a little longer now. "I think this is a really good sign of how the maker community comes together and continually comes together, not only for supporting newcomers to our city but also how they come together to help each other. I mean so many people have said, 'I don't know how to knit or crochet,' and it's always followed up with a, 'I can show you how.' So I think that the opportunity to come and learn a new skill while also giving love and warmth during the winter months is amazing, and I'd like to keep going."

If you'd like to donate some woolies to the cause, learn how to knit or crochet, or meet other maker bees, the next meet-ups are on Wednesday December 2 and Thursday December 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Barking Buffalo Cafe.