Knit One, Purl One, Laugh a Lot

If you're having trouble with your wimple or can't figure out how to attach your thumbs, head on over to the Gales Ferry library where the wise and talented members of the Stitch and Dish knitting group will straighten you right out.

The group, which formed several years ago, meets twice a month to work together on personal and community service projects in an atmosphere of mutual support and hilarity. These ladies laugh – a lot – while whipping up scarves, hats, mittens, socks, and, yes, the occasional wimple.

On Wednesday night, member Jessie Baker of Gales Ferry shared two of the combination neckwarmer/headscarves she'd crafted out of her own handspun yarn – one a rose angora, the other a teal mohair blend – and worked on a mohair shrug in autumn tones.

"Jessie does different and beautiful things," commented member Bett Schissler of Ledyard, who was working on a blue hat and scarf set to donate to a social service organization. Mackie Harding, the evening's token crocheter, and Valerie Rehberg, knitting in a checkerboard pattern, were also making scarves for charity.  

Stitch and Dish's service branch – "The Ledyard Mad Hatters" – coordinates seasonal projects which involve local knitters and crocheters far beyond the core group.

"One winter project was preemie hats," explained member Marilyn Baseler, of Ledyard. "We put out the call, and we got 401 hats. Every one was different."

The library supports the projects through advertising, providing project patterns, and serving as a drop-off point for completed items, said Assistant Librarian and group member Mary Ellen Osborne.

Other service projects have included baby items, such as bibs and sweaters, to be included in "Sea Bags" for new Navy parents, lap robes and wheelchair bags for soldiers in veteran's hospitals in Newington and West Haven. They've also made afghans for children and adults at Maddona Place, a shelter in Norwich.

"I just brought the 12 afghans to Madonna Place last week," said Baseler, who is in charge of delivering the group's gathered projects to their recipients. "What we discover is that everyone needs stuff, but what they are astounded by is that these things were made just for them… Every place we bring them, they're just really, really touched that we're not just bringing things that nobody wanted, but things that were made just for them."

Grateful recipients

The recipients are grateful and the work benefits the creators as well. People want to knit, but their children are grown, or their grandchildren won't wear knit hats – "or their daughter-in-law shrinks things," Baseler said, and so they have nobody to knit for.

Of the impressive 401 preemie caps, she said, "we just put up the notice in the libraries and that was the [community] response… We find that people really want to do these things, but they don't always want to be part of a group."           

The Mad Hatters' projects meet that need.

Often, of course, people do want the camaraderie a like-minded group can provide. New member Johanna Nolan of Ledyard found the group when she was trying to knit traditional Nova Scotia socks. "I almost went insane trying to do it myself," she said.

Then a friend recommended Stitch and Dish. She's been a member for three or four months, and is now working on her fourth pair. In addition to the socks, and several thumbless mittens-in-progress, she's also made "four or five hats for donation."

"I found out the essence of the group," she said, "And I put my socks aside and decided to work on something for somebody else."

Knitters at any level, interested in projects personal or charitable, are welcome to join the group. The group has one member who came to her first meeting never having worked with yarn. Last summer she completed her first afghan. "She learned to both knit and crochet," at the same time, said Osborne. "She's one of our success stories."

The group has received, and continues to accept, donations of yarn and other knitting supplies. Interested newbies can be set up with a pair of needles or a crochet hook and some yarn for their first project, if need be.

The Stitch and Dish evening group meets at the Gales Ferry library at 7 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month. The afternoon group meets at the Gales Ferry Library at 3 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month. For more information, please call the library at 860-464-6943 and ask for Mary Ellen.