“Chase the Chill” has become a social media movement that inspires people to leave warm scarves, often with a note, in public places for anyone to take.

“I’m not lost,” it says on many of the homemade tags. “Take me if you’re cold.”

Scarves draped on trees, posts, signs, and other public locations first appeared in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 2010, according to the original Chase the Chill group on Facebook.

Susan Huxley, a crochet teacher, writer and blogger, who started the Easton group with some friends, says she saw homeless people walking to the shelter down the street, often without the proper clothing to keep them warm.

“I wanted to do more. Something that allowed people the freedom of personal choice and dignity,” said Huxley, whose charity-centered ‘yarn bombing’ spread widely to Boston, Winnipeg, Georgia and elsewhere.

Photos, like this one from the Winnipeg group, are shared on Facebook and knitters start their own groups wherever they live. The latest group in Detroit scarf bombed trees with mittens, hats and scarves this week in four locations.’

Photo courtesy of Chase the Chill in Winnipeg