BETTY JOHNSON-ESTEB, of Brush Prairie, works on a sweater and laughs with her friends in the Battle Ground Stitch Wits, a group of knitting, crocheting and needlepoint enthusiasts who meet each Tuesday morning at the Battle Ground Community Library.
DIANE SMYTH, A founding member of the Battle Ground Stitch Wits group, models a sweater she crafted for herself during a recent meeting of the handicrafts group, on Tues, May 12.
There is nothing new about women finding friendship and support in a handicraft circle.
In fact, the act dates back to the beginning of recorded history and crosses all cultures, religions and races – imagine Amish women bonding over an intricate quilt, Native American women weaving baskets and stories, anti-slavery activists voicing their political beliefs or “chewing the rag” inside their sewing circles and Kenyan women planning the future of their villages as they craft beads from recycled magazine paper.
Clark County women have not lost this tradition. On any given weekday, you can find a handicraft circle gathered at a local library or community center – knitting, crocheting and quilting their way toward lifelong friendship.
The Battle Ground Stitch Wits group, which meets weekly at the Battle Ground Public Library, is a perfect example.
On a recent Tuesday morning, more than a dozen Stitch Wits women gathered around a large oval table inside the Battle Ground library’s private meeting room. At their feet, bags of yarn, crochet hooks, needlepoint patterns and knitting needles sat waiting for the crafting to begin. As the women pour themselves a cup of coffee, pick a treat from a centerpiece of baked goods and start to craft sweaters, baby booties and caps, a peaceful calm infuses the room. When a stranger stops by to learn more about this tight-knit group of older women, the Stitch Wits members don’t hesitate: One by one, they share stories of friendships forged over laughter and yarn, of projects they’ve conquered and people they’ve helped.
The women’s individual reasons for joining the Stitch Wits group vary. Some wanted to learn how to crochet or knit or needlepoint. Others had recently moved to the area and wanted to make new friends. One woman, Susan Buss, had worked in the neonatal unit at Oregon Health Sciences University for many years and always longed to knit warm, little booties for the neonatal babies. Since joining the Stitch Wits, Buss has produced three booties – “I’m slow,” she says, laughing and pulling out a booty that is half-finished. “I’ve only made three so far, but that’s a start!”
They may have joined for different reasons, but if you ask them why they stay, the answer is the same – they stay for the friendship. And, OK, some of them stay for the baked goods, too, but the treats come second to the people.
“We’ve been through major life events together,” says Diane Smyth. “It’s stress relieving, coming here and being with these women.”
Smyth, along with Barbara Sizemore, is one of the original members of the Stitch Wits group, which started about eight years ago. Throughout the years, the group has ebbed and – mostly – flowed, with new members joining all the time. The group welcomes all handicraft enthusiasts, but is mainly comprised of women over the age of 50 who like to knit, crochet or needlepoint.
The group has a long history of making charitable donations. Most recently, they knit more than two dozen baby hats for the “Period of Purple Crying” Caps Campaign, which aims to prevent shaken baby syndrome by educating parents and caregivers about “purple crying,” the normal but exhausting developmental phase when infants tend to cry louder and for longer periods of time.
Giving back to the community has been a part of the Stitch Wits group since the beginning, Sizemore says.
“We had a member who was going through chemotherapy, so we made her a cap,” Sizemore says. “When she put the cap on, she said she felt pretty again for the first time in a long time … so we started making chemotherapy caps for other cancer patients.”
Over the past eight years, the group has donated handmade presents to the local Veterans Assistance Center’s Christmas store, made blankets for hospice patients, knit caps for babies and donated handicrafts to local domestic violence shelters.
Of course, just because they are bonded over a love of handicrafts, doesn’t mean these women are all the same. Many have raised children, but some haven’t. More than a few retired from high-profile careers and several Stitch Wits members have traveled the world, returning with stories – and sometimes patterns – from places like Portugal, Italy and Ireland. Some members hang out outside the handicrafts circle. Others only see each other on Tuesday mornings, when they gather at the Battle Ground library. Still, the love they share for one another is apparent.
At a recent Stitch Wits gathering, members egged Sizemore on, telling her that she needs to get sheep and alpacas on her property.
“No way! I’m not going to work an extra 25 hours a week, raising animals, just so you all can have free wool,” Sizemore says wryly, causing the rest of the group to explode in laughter.
At another section of the table, Stitch Wits member Betty Johnson-Esteb is celebrating her birthday. The Stitch Wits’ rule is that members bring treats for everyone else on their own birthdays, but Johnson-Esteb doesn’t mind. She’s brought treats for her stitch sisters and is happily working on a new project – a lovely, sea-green sweater with a lace stitch on the sleeves. The yarn she’s selected cost nearly $20 a skein and the sweater will require about seven skeins, so Johnson-Esteb is taking her time and making sure the sweater fits her perfectly.
Across the table, she points out that Smyth has already finished this pattern and is, in fact, wearing the lace-stitch sweater. The two women laugh about having such similar sweaters, but Smyth says it’s OK, because the women usually see each other only at the Stitch Wits group.
“We don’t run in the same circles, so we don’t have to worry about wearing it on the same day,” Smyth says, smiling at the birthday girl across from her.
Sizemore is also working on a sweater. As she places a knit flower on the sweater to give it a little more pizazz, Sizemore talks about her love of handicrafts and says she started teaching others to crochet when she was in junior high school. Throughout the years, she’s taught herself how to spin her own yarn and says she loves living in Clark County, which is rich in alpaca wool and handicraft enthusiasts. Of the Stitch Wits group that she helped form nearly a decade ago, Sizemore says part of the group’s appeal is its openness.
“We don’t have any officers or dues,” Sizemore says. “We welcome all abilities. You can come when you want and you don’t have to come every week. And new members, including men, are always welcome.”
The Stitch Wits meet every Tuesday, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Battle Ground Community Library, located at 1207 SE 8th Way in the Battle Ground Village. Can’t make it to the daytime Stitch Wits meeting? There is another Stitch Wits group that meets on Wednesday evenings, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Battle Ground Library.
Other handicraft groups meet throughout the week around the county: On Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to noon, a Stitchery Group meets at the Ridgefield Community Library, 210 N. Main Ave., Ridgefield; and on Thursdays, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., a Needle Crafters group meets at the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C. St., Vancouver.
On Fridays, in nearby Skamania County, from noon to 3 p.m., the Library Quilts! quilting group meets at the Stevenson Community Library, 120 NW Vancouver Ave., in Stevenson. For more information about these handicraft groups, visit the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District’s website at http://fvrl.ent.sirsi.net and click on the “Events” button at the top of the page.
