Knitting the Ties That Bind in Aliso Viejo

Every Thursday evening, friends sit round a table at The Neighborhood Cup. They laugh, share stories and knit. These crafty folk are participating in "Knit Knight," an event held by The Orange County Knitting Meetup Group.

"Knitters and coffee are a great mix. It's more of a social meeting.  You have lawyers, housewives and engineers...people from just all walks of life...getting together to form a common bond," said co-founder of the group and fiber artist Izzy November.

November taught himself how to knit when he was a bored 8-year-old. Since then, he has become a fiber artist. Currently he is making a "hoodie," or hooded jacket for himself.

But he also heads a group of volunteer knitters who knit "Comfort Scarves" for the non-profit organization, Handmade Especially for You. When abused women enter Los Angeles County shelters, HEFY provides them with a comfort scarf. According to HEFY's website, the organization hopes that, "the scarves are a symbol of every woman's transformation."

"I am always amazed at the generosity of knitters," November said.

For fun, November and his friends go on "yarn crawls" rather than "pub crawls." They get together on Saturdays and buy yarn. Or they will go to someone's house and swap yarn.

"People knit things out of all different kinds of fiber," said November.  "There are even fibers made from sugar, and corn, and soy."

Knitters create much more than scarves.

"There are a lot of people who knit crazy things," said Suzanne Nielsen. "They call it 'yarn bombing.'  It's knitted and crocheted graffiti or knit 'in the round.' There was an artist who knit all the way around the Merill Lynch bull on Wall Street. And another artist knit a pink tea cozy over a tank as a statement. Someone even knit a whole Ferrari."

Nielsen prefers to make gifts for friends.  The baby ball she is working on has already taken seven hours to knit. 

"People think it takes so much patience to knit," Nielsen said, "but without knitting, we lose our patience."

April Reis, a member of the group, uses the group time to gather advice from her fellow knitters.

"If you have a problem or question. It's nice to have people to come to," she said.

Reis' mother taught her daughter to knit.

"My daughter would come to me and ask knitting questions. So I learned how to knit, too. Now I knit with my daughter who is 15 years old. It gives us time to talk. Sometimes all three of us knit together.  It's a multi-generational thing," Reis said.

Tiffany Hale just moved from Texas two months ago.  She is the mother of a toddler and joined the group to meet new friends.

"This is my adult time," said Hale. "It's relaxing. It's not hard, and you don't think about other things when you're doing it."

Tonya Cockrell recently moved to Corona but drives to Aliso Viejo to come to Knit Knight.

"I get to be with my friends and I feel comfortable here," said Cockrell.

Julia Kroyan created two knitting apps for the iPhone.  With one app, the knitter can enter instructions into the "Jknit" app, and it will guide the knitter through the project. The "Knit Evenly" app helps the knitter increase or decrease in an even manner.

"This is not your 'old way' knitting group, " said Carmen Trinidad. "It's very informative and very welcoming. We discuss designs. We share techniques. You come here and you get into a different world. You leave work behind."

Knit Knight takes place every Thursday evening beginning around 6:30 p.m. at The Neighborhood Cup. All levels of knitters are encouraged to join.