Meramec’s Yarn Club visits local STL yarn shops
By: Kavahn Mansouri
-Editor in Chief-
Standing between aisles and aisles of knitting and crocheting materials STLCC-Meramec students oohed and ahhed at the massive collection of yarn in the South City store Knitourious. Hundreds of colors and materials lined the store while an entire bookshelf of patterns and designs kept the students eyes glued to knitting and crocheting magazines.
On Saturday, Nov. 10 the Yarn Club visited Knitorious, Kirkwood Yarnery and Unit Yarns. As members of the club wandered the shops, the club’s president, Samantha Tohtz, searched for the perfect material for her next project.
Tohtz said the club is a perfect atmosphere for students to learn a new trade and unwind.
“Basically, just to create an environment for people to come and relax and just decompress from the stress. Which is kind of ironic when you consider knitting and crocheting bring a lot of stress with it,” Tohtz said. “It’s basically a way for people to come and do a hobby and find people with like interest and have some chill time.”
Tohtz said the craft was a cheap and easy way to keep herself busy when money was tight.
“When I was younger my mom was always knitting or sewing or something, and I tried to learn crocheting when I was younger but never put the effort into it,” Tohtz said. “A couple years ago I was living out in Kansas City, and I didn’t have a lot of money at the time so I was thinking this would be a really cheap, easy hobby for me to do.”
The Yarn Club meets every other Friday in Meramec’s cafeteria where the club has a “stitching circle,” a place to work on projects and discuss everyday subjects. Meramec students Julie Nguyen and Jessica Young were among the attendees on the field trip.
Young said the club was exactly what she was looking for when she moved from St. Charles Community College to Meramec.
“It was one of the first things I looked for when I came to Meramec,” Young said. “I’m really happy there is a yarn club because I was one of the only people I knew who knits or crochets. Now I’m teaching my grandma to knit.”
Nguyen said the club was a good place to work on projects and talk about the craft.
“My mom taught me how to knit and crochet but she isn’t really into in anymore so I’m glad this club exists so I have someone to talk to about it,” Nguyen said.
Tohtz planned the field trip by looking up several local yarn shops in an attempt to promote knowledge of local business and provide a learning experience for newer members of the club. The club promotes the DIY (Do It Yourself) movement.
“People want to get back to being able to make things themselves, maybe it’s a reaction to all this technology we have,” Yarn Club co-adviser Becky Helbling said. “It is cool to see a lot of young people want to do that.”
The club was first launched by adviser Janis Hovis and former Meramec student Emily Spotche. Hovis helped start the club and co-adviser Rebecca Helbling joined soon after.
“I was team teaching a library research class with another librarian and I brought something I knitted one day. One of the students was really interested in learning how to knit and asked if there was a club, and found out there was no club and decided to found a knitting club on campus,” Hovis said. “At first we were the Nifty Knitters and Emily asked me to be the club adviser. When she graduated we didn’t know if the club would go on but Sam stepped in.”
Helbling said the club helps her connect with students outside of the library.
“I just think it’s another way to get to know some students outside of the classroom,” Helbling said. “It gives me another chance to interact with students in a maybe little more relaxed setting.”
Hovis said the club is growing and has come far in the past year.
“We’ve actually had a lot more active members this semester and it looks like it really is growing now,” Hovis said. “I enjoy our conversations; I enjoy teaching people knitting and crocheting. We learn from each other too because some of us aren’t good at stitches and some of us have ideas to share.”
