“It’s a great hobby. It can be very therapeutic. It’s very calming,” said Jill Wise.

Three women with local roots met due to their cross-stitch interests decades ago. Then they moved on into knitting.

“That’s what people come here for (Nadel Kunst Needle Art, now at the rear of 212 N. Minnesota Street),” said Wise. “They may be working on a project, get stuck and come here. She (Nadel Kunst store owner Cindy Hillesheim) is the ‘fixer.'”

“I have a passion for knitting. Even if people didn’t buy their yarn here, I will help them,” Hillesheim said.

Julie Spurbeck displays knit socks she made.

Last week she was making an afghan from yarn she didn’t use in other projects. Hillesheim said knitting is a great thing to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People were afraid to leave their residences, so they used the yarn they had,” she said. “I’d get calls for yarn during the pandemic. It went on so long, some people ran out of yarn, so they’d call me up to get more. Sometimes I’d send it to them.”

Hillesheim said a good number of her customers are men who usually come in knowing how to knit.

“A lot of them were in the (military) service where they had to sew and began knitting,” she added. “Teenagers that come in usually knit or sew something sports-related.”

Hillesheim said area people raise alpacas that produce what is considered luxurious yarn.

Cindy Hillesheim displays a new afghan she’s knitting.

“It’s some of the warmest wool and it’s lightweight,” she added.

Nadel Kunst also sells patterns for projects and embroidery floss.

“Lots of people are doing embroidery now and dish towels. Socks are huge,” Hillesheim said. “One-hundred percent wool is so healing, warm and easy to care for. It’s machine washable now.”

Wise said knitting is a good winter activity.

“What else can you do on cold, winter days,” she said. “It’s a way to make new friends.”

The women agreed its a great conversation starter when they knit in public and people ask them what they are making.

Wise and her sister Julie Spurbeck of Gold Canyon, Az. were knitting with Hillesheim in her store Feb. 3. Spurbeck said she once practiced and sat on the bench during a game with the Gibbon baseball team when she was much younger because the team didn’t have many players. She said she didn’t get into the game.

Hillesheim welcomes people of all ages to the store. If they don’t know how to knit, she will teach them. She has been known to donate knit sweaters to new babies that she knows about.

The back table in the store is known as a friendly, meeting place, even for those that don’t knit.