'You knit, you purl and your troubles go away'

FORT WALTON BEACH — One knit, one purl and one bite of cake. It’s simple on “knit night.”

Women 18 to 70 years old gather every first and third Wednesday to eat, drink and knit at the Unwind yarn store in downtown Fort Walton Beach.

Whether it’s a knitter’s first day or they have been coming for years, there is plenty to talk about. What’s said, however, never leaves the room.

“What’s said at knit night stays at knit night,” Judy Atchison said recently as she knitted a blue sweater. “We don’t talk about politics or religion.”

“But everything else is on the table,” added June Scroggin. “It’s a free-for-all.”

Ellen Dixon, owner of Unwind, said she started the sessions when she took over the store five years ago.

Since then, she said the group has become a community.

“The love of knitting brings all of us together,” Dixon said as she circulated around the room and chatted. “Everybody here loves it. They come together with a common purpose.

“We end up being the sounding board for life,” she added. “You’ve got a problem? You can let it out at knit night.”

Ashley Ingram, 31, said knitting knows no age. Despite being younger than many of the women, she said she feels at home in the small shop that has walls lined with a rainbow of yarns.

“Since coming here I’ve become a knitter with a capital K,” Ingram said as she worked on a brown shawl. “It seems a little wonky at first, but once your fingers get used to it you all of a sudden will find a rhythm.

“The yarn fumes, I guess, get to you and you just have to go to knit night,” she added, laughing. “My husband has it marked on his calendar. He knows when it’s knit night. It’s one of those things you don’t mess with.”

On any given knit night, eight to 20 women gather around the wooden tables inside the shop.

On a recent Wednesday night, Scroggin worked on a simple blue and green shawl she said she will be able to wear anywhere. The key to knitting is feeling the yarn, she said.

“I just love knitting. It’s like sitting on the beach,” Scroggins said. “You knit, you purl and your troubles go away.”