A stitch in time

Aug 26, 2023

Laura Reid said she enjoys knitting alongside her friends in the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group, and finds inspiration from their ideas. The group meets every week from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the basement of the Saranac Lake Free Library. Their work will be featured in a fiber arts show at the library from Oct. 2 to Nov. 25.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Needles clicked as friends swapped stories and knitting knowledge in the basement of the Saranac Lake Free Library on Thursday. A group of the Knitterondackers were setting to work on their latest projects.

The knitters have been meeting there for seven years in a social group organized by their “fearless leader” Lynne Ulicki.

She’s been knitting for most of her life. As a teenager, Ulicki was hit by a drunk driver. While she was laid up in the hospital for a long time, she taught herself to knit. Her first creations were made with “two broken legs in traction on my back.”

This passion for stitching wool started as a way to pass time, keep busy and take her mind off things. Then, in her career, it was a way to steel her nerves.

“I was an air traffic controller,” Ulicki said. “This would calm me down.”

Liz DeFonce shows off the scarf she’s been working on to friends with the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group on Thursday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

While guiding planes in and out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the busiest in the country, she’d be knitting away. After years of visiting Whiteface to ski on her time off, she moved to the Adirondacks with her husband after retiring. There aren’t many air traffic control jobs around here, since there’s not a lot of radar in the mountains.

Ulicki got Beth Benson’s husband Pete — who was then the library director — to sponsor the group, put up flyers on bulletin boards around town and added it to the Enterprise calendar.

In all, there’s around 50 people who stop in to knit from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. — on average, around 15 a week.

“Knitting is a very isolating hobby because you’re doing it yourself and you’re usually doing it at home,” Ulicki said. “This has been fun.”

Despite its sometimes solitary nature, Beth said knitting can easily be a social activity. While their hands are busy and preoccupied, their minds and voices are free to wander. As they work, they share ideas, learn about each others’ lives and discuss what’s going on around town. They can even finish eachothers’ sentences.

Lynne Ulicki started the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group seven years ago.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Though they all come from different personal, professional and regional backgrounds, they share a common love of knitting.

“Our paths would not have crossed with half of this group here,” Laura Reid said. “These people have become my dear friends.”

She finds inspiration in her friends’ work.

Susan Hopkins and Carol Jones also said they come to admire their friends’ projects.

Knitting takes quite a bit of patience. A full-sized sweater or blanket can take days or weeks depending on how fast and how often it is worked on. And every piece only comes together one stitch at a time.

Christa Gordon works on a scarf while talking with the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group on Thursday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

A bit of knitting knowledge is a prerequisite for the group. It’s not a class where the skill is taught, but they are all very open to helping out, sharing tips, swapping patterns and troubleshooting.

Knitting has its own recipes, a code of abbreviations the group calls a “language.”

Ulicki writes patterns in this language and sells them online, too.

They knit clothing for themselves and as gifts for others.

Reid was working on a baby dress for her niece, who is expecting in the fall. She said she was getting a “head start,” or else the child will be getting it for a high school graduation present.

Gail Huston works on a project while talking with the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group on Thursday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Patricia Martz was rolling a ball of pink yarn while preparing to make a baby sweater.

“This baby’s already been born. I’ve got to get busy,” she said.

They’ve knitted blankets for the animal shelter — pets with colorful blankets are more likely to get adopted — knit animals to raise money for the library at its summer book sale, knit hats and mittens for the local food pantry and for asylum seekers crossing into Canada, and “yarn-bombed” the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in 2020 — coating it in string, like graffiti.

From Oct. 2 to Nov. 25, their work can be seen at the library’s Fiber Arts Show.

Emma Galeotti, who is organizing the show, said she is collecting submissions until Aug. 31. To make a submission, contact her at [email protected]. This is her first fiber show, and she wants to make it an annual tradition.

Patricia Martz works on a baby dress while talking with the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group on Thursday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Jones started a “spin-off” group of spinners who meet at the Paul Smith’s College VIC every Tuesday to work their large wheeled contraptions. Christa Gordon said she went once and bought a wheel of her own the next day.

Hopkins has made knitting into a “year-round obsession.”

The hats she knits are made from wool she dyes herself with mushrooms. In the summer, she goes foraging for numerous types of mushrooms that provide rich and earthy colors. In the fall, she dehydrates the fungi and mixes them with aluminum and iron. Then, in the winter — and on Thursdays — she knits with her creations.

Hopkins will be holding a program on mushroom dyeing at the library on Oct. 13.

Benson was wrapping up work on a colorful sweater.

“I think it’s for me,” she said. “Unless it doesn’t fit me, then it’s for someone else.”

This drew a hearty laugh from her friends gathered around the room. It’s a part of the knitting process they all know well.

Carol Jones works on a mushroom bag while talking with the “Knitterondackers” social knitting group on Thursday.(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

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