Knit Night in Milton

The following is a copy of the article in the Burlington Free Press about the knitting group I started in Milton. We now meet weekly and seem to add a knitter at every meeting!

Once a solitary hobby, knitting now a social event.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 By Lauren OberFree Press Staff Writer

Elaine Campbell hates knitting thumbs. If she had a choice, all mittens would be thumbless. Jane Lewandowski is a whiz at making socks. That's all she makes, but she'd like to change that.

Barb Consentino is a bit of a knitting newbie, but already she's addicted. She now sneaks yarn into the house.Each woman has a different knitting tale, but all made the choice to move their solitary hobby to a more social environment at the first meeting of a newly formed knitting group in Milton. The group drew nine women to The Alley Coffee House recently to knit, swap stories and drink coffee.

Renee Johnson, a Milton resident and long-time knitter, came up with the idea for a knitting group in Milton, although she insists that the group is not exclusive to Milton residents. Johnson wanted an informal group to share ideas about patterns, stitches and yarns while getting out of the house, a brief respite from the toils of everyday life.

Each woman had a story to tell about her knitting experience. Johnson started with Icelandic sweaters and has made everything from hats and scarves to felted bags and bowls. Colleen Sauve learned to knit as a little girl and recently returned to it, making chemo caps for her sister-in-law, who has cancer. Jeannette Cavanaugh's grandmother taught her to knit and while recovering from a long illness, Cavanaugh found herself digging back into her old yarn stash to pick it up again. Sarah Shepherd, who whipped her way through a lap blanket, thought the group would be a good way to meet new people, especially as a relative newcomer to Milton. "I thought, 'This sounds like a good way to be social,'" Shepherd said, her fingers moving the needles at dizzying speed.

Many of the women brought pieces they were working on, including a wool shrug, a few winter hats and a royal purple wimple, headgear that covers the head, neck and chin. They swapped opinions about the best yarn and the best place to buy yarn. Julie Gennrich, the owner of the coffee shop, crocheted a hat between serving customers. The group decided that charity knitting would be a good way to put their vast and varied talents to good use. They discussed knitting chemo caps to donate to cancer patients at Fletcher Allen Health Care and making soft caps for premature newborns. Gennrich, who is on the board of directors for Earth Angels, an organ donation advocacy group, proposed a plan for the group to knit prayer shawls that transplant recipients would give to the organ donors' families.

The group, still in its developing stage, is looking for knitters. While the group is not instructional in nature, group members will try to teach tricky knitting, such as continental stitching or making those pesky sock heels.