Knitters meet, spin yarns

Every week, the Fresh Meadows branch of the Queens Public Library offers a place for people to practice their craft of choice - knitting - while they spin yarns about the most important people in their lives: babies.
As seats began filling up, the attention turned to mother-and-daughter pair Lorna and Wendy Monterosso. Wendy was stitching a tiny cap, jacket and booties because, as she explained, “co-workers are having babies.”
No sooner had Wendy said this than her mother pulled out a booklet entitled “A Blessed Event”- a book of photos of babies of every different race, religion and type of household, uniting over the fact that they are all very cute.
As the booklet was passed around, Lorna told the group about how she would tailor OshKosh B’Gosh clothes for Wendy when she was a baby. “I made her these really neat outfits,” she said. When Wendy turned five, Lorna taught her how to sew, leading to a lifelong hobby.
“I made my dad golf club covers. Every kid makes those,” said Wendy, who made woolen presents for her seven suitemates at the State University of New York at Oneonta. “They all put in orders,” she said.
Marilyn Downing also had a story to share. Since learning to knit when she was six years old, she has sewn two wedding dresses: her own and her daughter’s-and she had pictures to prove it, which were also passed around.
Thursday’s knitting and crocheting club, which gathers at 6 p.m., is small compared to the nearly 20 dedicated knitters that meet on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
“I just started last month and I’ve been so very happy since I joined,” said Maryse Delatour, of Hollis, who previously knitted with the Big Apple Knitting Guild at LaGuardia Community College.
Projects run the gamut from afghans to baby blankets to custom Mets garb.
“If it comes out well, I’ll donate it to a children’s hospital,” said Chris Psimoganis as he worked on a yellow blanket. Psimoganis, of Bayside, has been knitting for two years and started attending the club last winter. His other hobbies include, “sketching, drawing, painting, reading, working on crossword puzzles,” he said. “Anything creative.”
Psimoganis said the group originally met on Mondays, which was difficult for him, as it was for many working people. He was grateful when the club switched to Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings.
Meanwhile, Downing knitted a blue-and-orange Mets sweater for her five-year-old granddaughter. She found the border, a pattern of children standing side-by-side, in a book of Swedish sweaters. “On the front, I put ‘Mets’ instead of snowflakes,” she said. For this design, Downing made a chart explaining how to duplicate the familiar orange script in wool.
“[Knitting is] very relaxing,” said Wendy. “You end up with something…I like being able to give people homemade things. People really appreciate getting a little pair of booties.”