Sitting & Stitching for 20 years

The Webster Public Library-based Sit & Stitch group has just celebrated 20 years of fellowship and friendship.

I first met the Sit & Stitchers ten years ago, when I visited them on the occasion of the club’s 10th anniversary, for an article for my Our Towns East Extra column, which I was writing for the D&C at that time.

In that article I wrote that in those ten years, the group had grown from just two or three regulars to an average of perhaps a dozen crafters every week — men and women, young and old. And as it grew, the club had also become less about the crafts, and more about the community.

I quoted Marcia Weinert, the group’s creator and coordinator, as saying,

We have become a very caring group of friends who always have room for a new face in the circle. At the same time, we reach out to each other as personal issues arise — a new grandbaby, an illness or death. You’d be amazed at how healing sticks and string can be.

Nothing much has changed in the years since that article. More crafters have discovered the group, so you’ll often find many more than a dozen people circled up in the Webster Public Library’s community room for the weekly gatherings. But that feeling of community, family and friendship remains, and continues to be a huge part of the group’s purpose.

Aside from the cake and punch bowl set up in the corner of the room, last Monday’s meeting was pretty typical of every weekly gathering. It was very well attended; about two dozen crafters crowded into the circle, their projects draped over their laps, needles clicking. A table at the front of the room was covered with finished projects exhibiting the impressive variety of fiber arts these men and women have created. But that ever-present sense of community was also very much on display. Friends welcomed friends, experienced knitters welcomed new arrivals, the conversations flowed and laughter filled the room.

When Marcia stood up to speak this year, she credited the group members for making the club what it is.

“Like in Field of Dreams,” she said, “when (the voice) said ‘if you build it they will come,’ literally by just showing up, you are the ones who created this. You are the ones who made the community. You teach each other.”

The Sit & Stitchers have become a weekly support group, a family, sharing stories and skills, making friends and helping others. And I will no doubt be visiting with them again in ten more years.

The Sit & Stitch group meets every Monday (when the library is open) from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Webster Public Library community room. All fiber arts crafters are welcome, no matter your experience level. No need to register, just stop by, and bring whatever project you’re working on.

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(posted 2/4/2024)

Tags: Missy Rosenberry, Sit & Stitch, Webster NY, Webster Public Library