Winter is just around the corner, and knitters are busy making blankets and scarves. At NYU, there is a group of people who have been knitting for almost 12 years, not for themselves, but for various charities. They call themselves the “Naughty Knitters.”

“We have to be careful with the name because people who don’t know us think we might be naughty, but we are not. We are nice,” said Jennifer Tichenor, an NYU Steinhardt alumna who founded the Naughty Knitters in 2004. When asked how the group gets its name, Tichenor said the idea came from a friend.

“I was thinking about starting the group, and I was at a little party with some NYU friends. My friend next to me who ran the Sex Ed Department had a wonderful sense of humor and said to me, ‘Just call them the naughty knitters!’”

Tichenor had helped at local food banks, rescue centers and senior groups and had been working as a nurse before she retired in 2014. During her time at NYU, she got to know people who enjoyed making crafts. She also observed many New York charities’ need for items like pads and scarves. “There are people who are willing to help but don’t know how to reach out to organizations,” Tichenor said, “and Naughty Knitters is the place they come to.”

The members of Naughty Knitters are a mixed community of people including administrators, wives of faculty members and students. “There are people who make one item a year and there are people who make a hundred items a year,” Tichenor said. “But nobody has asked me to take their name off the list. Nobody.”

With the help of the members the group has donated more than 5,000 items to the homeless, children and the United States military in the past 12 years.

There are some core members who have been working for Naughty Knitters for many years. Among them is Tricia Voda, another NYU Steinhardt alumna. Tichenor said that Voda is very talented and that she could not have run the group without her. Voda joined in 2011 and created the Naughty Knitters Facebook page.

“It is a lot easier to reach people both in and outside NYU community, give more exposure to what we do,” Voda said. “It can also give a public thank you to people who had helped us.”

This week, the Naughty Knitters are busy preparing for the annual big event on Dec. 9, when they make an official donation to representatives from different charities. This year, they knit 250 toy bears for the project Knitting Without Borders, which donates knitted and crocheted bears to children undergoing medical treatments around the world.

Tichenor moved to New York City when she was 27 and has lived here since then. For her, being a New Yorker means that, “If you get, you need to give.” She wants to help as many people as possible.

“There are people who are in the trenches but courageous. I want to bring some color in their everyday life. That’s important to me.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Dec. 4 print edition. Email Lily Li at [email protected].