Every Friday at 1:30 p.m., a group of women at Edgemere Senior Living gather around to socialize and enjoy tea and cookies. But they are really there to knit.
For almost 20 years, the Edgemere “Knit Wits” have made handmade knitwear. Sometimes five ladies show up, sometimes 12. Regardless, everyone gathers at the end of the week with their pins and needles for the afternoon.
Knit Wits member Donna Powers joined the knitting group with no prior experience but with the patience to learn.
“It’s a very nice way to end the week,” Powers says. “It’s very calm and we have people who don’t know how to knit but they still come back. Some people don’t get it at all and they just like to join us for the ride.”
They’ve made knitwear for the community and send knitwear overseas. In the early 2000s, they made helmet liners for the troops that were in Afghanistan. In 2022, they sent over a range of items from scarves, hats, blankets and others to children orphaned by the Ukrainian and Russian war.
“You know how ladies like to sit around and talk? Well, it gives us an excuse,” Knit Wits Co-chair Mary Ann Stover jokes. “We’re really doing something and we have really interesting discussions.”
Now, their most recent project focuses on a special cause closer to home.
When Stover joined the senior living community and the knitting club two years ago, she wanted to make a difference. A conversation with her daughter Catherine Ikemba, who works as a cardiologist at Children’s Health, led her to deeper work.
“I said I don’t have a purpose,” Stover says. “I said I need something that’s really important. And I’m also towards the end of my life. That affects you. I said I needed a project. I need to be needed.”
Her daughter connected the group to Betsy Beall, the hospital’s child life specialist. The project was to create knit caps for infants in the hospital’s intensive care unit who face heart problems.
Since the partnership, Knit Wits has provided the hospital with about 30 hats every three months. In two years, the group has collectively given over 200 knit caps to the unit.
“I have seen firsthand how excited the parents are and get tearful just being able to have that little bit of normality of being able to dress their baby in something while they’re here in the hospital and celebrate those special milestones,” Beall says. “It’s just been a great aspect of you’ve been able to add to our care because of the Knit Wit’s partnership with us.”
Beall and Stover remain in regular correspondence to continue to be on the same page about what the hospital needs and how many hats to knit.
Another member of the group, Peg Brown designs hats for all occasions including shamrocks for Saint Patrick’s Day, hearts for Valentine’s Day and flags for the Fourth of July.
“It’s a lot of different things, but it’s doing good for others,” Powers says. “And doing it anonymously. The glory is not for yourself, that’s the beauty of it.”
