Pat Piganelli struggled to cope when she was battling cancer a few years ago.
"I needed something," she recalls.
Something, it turns out, was knitting.
And, as with so many challenges both epic and small, it seemed obvious to go not solo, but with friends.
So, she put an ad in the paper seeking people interested in forming the Holladay Knitting Club. Jeanette Noyes answered. And eventually, Paige Paulson, Ellen Christensen and Peg Wylie joined, too. Now a few years old, the club boasts a loose, though steady, cohort of about a dozen knitters.
"We all have become such good friends," said Pignanelli, who calls herself the novice knitter of the group. "Knitting for a purpose has been a wonderful experience for me."
They gather round a boardroom table in the renovated City Hall's Mount Olympus Room every second Tuesday of the month.
This time, as they settle in, they carry totes filled with yarn, needles, pattern books and partly finished pieces of the next group project: an "art bomb" for World Wide Knit In Public Day that leaves Salt Lake City's Washington Square — and the stately City-County municipal building at its center — dotted with hand-knitted goods, including flowers and brightly colored swatches. Whatever's left of the installation when they take it down will be reworked into shawls for a Uganda women's hospital and possibly toys for the Crossroads Urban Center.
The group always seems to have a project going. Many winters, they do charity knitting.
Last year, they made 120 hats, scarves and mittens for The Road Home shelter, much of it thanks to donations from the community that have transformed several cupboards in the basement into a yarn stash that spans the rainbow. They've also knitted for police departments, soldiers' kids and the Candy Cane Corner store for homeless kids.
Paula Michniewicz said she loves knitting to bring a bit of joy to people who have suffered a tragic event, like a house fire.
"To get a handmade item that makes them look good and feel good," she said. "That makes me feel good."
Talking as they knit, group members insist they don't discriminate. A few members aren't even from Holladay but from nearby Cottonwood Heights. Some are known to crochet from time to time. Men are certainly invited.
And newcomers are welcomed along with pros, like Candace Krukiel, and like Alice Michniewicz, Paula's sister who learned to knit as a Girl Scout and whose 90-year-old father still has the pale blue scarf she made as her first project.
"It's a mixed crowd," says Wylie.
By this time, a stack of Girl Scout Thin Mints has appeared at the center of the table. It's not unusual for the meeting to include food — especially some form of chocolate.
It's also common for a wide variety of topics to come up, from local restaurants and new books, films and even the thrill of rocking with U2 during the band's recent Salt Lake City concert.
What makes a good knitter? Zen, tenacity, intelligence, math aptitude and a sense of humor, group members say.
"A willingess to experiment" adds Diane Burandt.
"And fail," says Wylie.
It also doesn't hurt to have a taste for adventure.
For instance, Holladay Knitting Club members wrinkle their noses in unison when a visitor asks about gauge-checking, a chore even some veteran knitters regard as sacrosanct for ensuring the correct size of each and every knitted piece. But there are no swatch bullies here.
"I figure," says Noyes, shrugging a little, "it will fit somebody, somewhere."
The discussion turns to what the next project should be. Another art bomb? How about a knitted garden around Holladay City Hall — complete with insects?
They pass around a pattern book on knitting animal and vegetable shapes. Noyes notices one and begins reading aloud from the pattern book.
"After all, nothing says 'I love you,' better than a hand-knit jackalope," Noyes smiles as the others laugh. "Well, guess what Bob's gettingâ¦"
fahys@sltrib.com —
The Holladay Knitting Club
The group meets every second Tuesday at Holladay City Hall, 4580 S. 2300 East. It is open to all knitters.
