Knitting with Company

Wool and Company, Knitting with Company, what’s that all about?

The idea of “company” has been around since we first opened the store in 2000, and it found its way into our vocabulary as a reflection of the fact that we feel that you are never alone when you’re knitting or crocheting – it is not a solitary hobby – you are in good company.

Whether you’re in a group of knitters or sitting at home with no one else in the room, you are always connected and in good company when you have needles and yarns in your hand.

Neil, who learned to knit as a small child, likens knitting to fly fishing.  “With the rod (needles) I cast the line (yarn) to the river or ocean in front of me.  As soon as that line hits the water I am connected to nature and to all that has gone before me”.   He continues, “When I knit the connection is very much the same.  It takes me right back, and I’m in the company of those women in my childhood who taught me the basics, my mother and my Aunt Mable.  That I might get something out of this, maybe a trout, maybe a hat, ends up being incidental to the process of connecting”.

At Wool and Company, we strive to create an environment where, if they wish, our visitors can extend their own personal knitting space in the company of others.

We support and promote all things knitting and crochet in our community.  Our annual Knit Out on the Courthouse Lawn takes place during the Swedish Days Festival in downtown Geneva – a couple of hundred knitters and crocheters from around the western suburbs of Chicago meet up and have a day of fun in the sun.

Gretl Kramer, of Elgin, and Phyllis Deerinck, of St. Charles, are victorious in the two-headed knitting contest, in which they worked as one knitter, each with one hand behind her back, on the Courthouse Lawn at Swedish Days in Geneva Wednesday.

You could hear the clicking of needles on the Kane County Courthouse lawn during Wednesday’s Knit-Out — when it wasn’t being drowned out by laughter and chatter as old friends caught up and new friends discovered each other over yarn and conversation. “One of the blessings of knitting is that I can talk to anyone who’s a knitter because we already have something in common,” noted Joyce Schultz, of Geneva.

We also hold ongoing open knitting sessions at our store, “Knitting with Company”, where you will encounter as many as twenty other people who share your passion. Stories are shared, techniques are swapped and there’s always a lot of laughter.