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C l o s e - k n i t f r i e n d s s e t t l e i n f o r t h e w i n t e r
Lepore, who has a B.S. in nursing and an Ed.M., believes knitting is popular as a group activity, because it creates a common ground. “When you’re sitting with someone and you’re knitting, it’s not like you’re a counselor and they’re a student. Or you’re a teacher and they’re a lawyer. Everyone is on an equal footing, and I think that lends itself to communication,” she said. “It breaks down those barriers that people sometimes have.” For several years now, Real Estate agent Penny Dey has been running a knitting group whose members have ranged from 7 to 80 years old. This winter, she plans to teach a class on knitting “sweaters that fit.” “I love that knitting has made a comeback in the last 10 years,” she said. “I think it had something to do with September 11. Before then, I think there were fewer than six yarn stores in Manhattan. Now, there are far more, because I think people want to nest more and to have control over something, even if that’s just creative control.” That feeling of control comes quickly, Dey said. “I have yet to find somebody who couldn’t learn to knit. It’s only a combination of two basic stitches. There’s something very fundamental about it and it has a kind of a logic to it that’s satisfying.” Penny Macintyre has been hosting a weekly needlework group for close friends for over a decade. “Knitting, needlepoint, quilters — we cover just about anything you can do with a needle in your hand,” she said. And while the act of creating is important, she believes her group returns for the camaraderie, coupled with the satisfaction of completing a project. One year, under Nina Helleman’s guidance, the group even created ornaments to decorate a tree at the NHA’s Festival of Trees. They still talk about it. Chris Harding, owner and proprietor of Sheep to Shore, and her daughter, Mollie, run informal knitting groups out of the store every Monday and Wednesday night. (Wednesday will mark the first class of the new year.) “Everybody has a different purpose for coming,” said Chris, who established Sheep to Shore in 2003 and has been offering knitting groups for two years now. “They’ve all become friendly with each other. … There’s no competition. We all love to knit and learn from each other’s knitting.” Chris said she tries to keep the group members abreast of the newest trends and resources related to the craft. Recently, she shared a new and much anticipated book of patterns created by the yarn manufacturer Koigu. The Sheep to Shore group’s constituency “ebbs and flows,” according to Chris. The Monday night meet-up generally has the broadest age range — from late 20s to late 50s — while the Wednesday night group tends to consist of women from their 20s to early 40s. Most new knitters are young women (and sometimes men) under the age of 35. The Wednesday night class is generally better for beginners, because it offers one-on-one instruction, Chris said. But with that one class, a neophyte can be knitting all on his or her own. “There’s a gentle, friendly spirit among everybody in the group,” Chris said. “Knitters are that way by nature, generally. Like gardeners, they love what they’re doing and want other people to love it, too.” The act of knitting, which experienced a boost in popularity over the last decade, is beloved by many for its calming, almost meditative quality. “If you’re in a room alone and you’re knitting, it’s a quieting exercise,” Chris said. Nancy Tyrer’s multi-generational knitting class at the Atheneum has seen an excellent turnout this winter as well. Focusing on one project at a time, the Atheneum’s classes have produced miniature sweatershaped ornaments, scarves and sachet knitted bags. Another Nantucket group knits hats for the babies in the hospital, and the Saltmarsh Senior Center hosts a popular knitting group. Jo-ann Winn’s Nantucket Knitting Bees — which meets on Nantucket from April to the end of December — drafts knitters to contribute squares of a certain size and pattern for blankets that the group assembles and sends to American troops. Violet Allen organizes a knitting group that meets at St. Paul’s once a month to work on prayer shawls. “We knit shawls for people who are sick, or just sad. People who have lost a loved one, or people who’ve lost a pet,” said Allen, who describes the shawl as though it were a hug. “It’s nice and warm and you can wrap it around your shoulders.” Recipients of the shawls also receive three prayers. But talk to enough knitters and you get the feeling that knitting something for someone might be just as reassuring, if not more so, than receiving. “It lays the groundwork for relationships to happen,” Lepore said. “It’s a process, and at the end of the process, you have more than just an item to wear, you have an item to give and maybe a relationship you didn’t have before.”
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