Knitwits able to gather again

By Christine Haines

chaines@yourmvi.com

Between the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the closing of the yarn shop that had been home base for more than a decade, it looked as if the Knitwits knitting and crochet group was unraveling this summer.

But the group has proven it’s held together by more than intertwined yarn. The Knitwits were first displaced by the pandemic restrictions in March and then in July by the closing of the Memory Tree and Yarn Branch where they had gathered for more than a decade. As pandemic restrictions lifted, group members felt it was time to meet again.

“Every once in a while a few people would stop in the shop at the same time, but we hadn’t met since March,” said Cathy Waller.

The Memory Tree and Yarn Branch closed in July, just after Dorothy Jackson celebrated her 89th birthday. 

“I just loved having the girls come in. I wish I had never closed. I miss it,” she  said.

Jackson is now a regular at the Wednesday night gathering

The Knitwits group of crafters, which had been without a steady home for the past six months, can now be found from 5 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in Monongahela.

The group is more than just a place to learn new stitches and socialize a few hours a week. Waller said if someone needs instruction in a certain technique, there is usually a group member who can help, but the Knitwits have become more than a craft group.

“It’s taken on an aspect other than just knitting or crocheting. We’ve sort of become a support group,” Waller said. “It’s a group of women, sometimes as many as 20, who get together and talk about everything.”

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