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PLATTSBURGH — Richard and Lisa Guay's Introduction to Knitting Class is one of the new, free, activity offerings, Tuesdays at 1 p.m., at the Senior Citizens Council of Clinton County, 5139 North Catherine St. in Plattsburgh.

This Tuesday, Richard was teaching long tail cast-on with Green Giant size knitting needles to students Kris Portal and an icognito knitter.

“We do have crocheters in our group that do knit and crochet,” he said.

“We just come in here. Basically, you practice your art. Right now, Kris is doing a caftan. She's been knitting for awhile.”

“I knitted years ago, and I wasn't that wonderful,” Kris said.

“It's coming back to you, right?” Richard said.

“Well, you look at the sweaters and stuff that you can buy, and they are not very interesting,” Kris said.

“They do like a cable. That's a big thing, a twisted cable. Then, it's like a $100 or more for those sweaters.”

“I've done one sweater that is very plain,” Richard said.

“It took me awhile to do it, and it looks like I could be pregnant in it and it would fit.”

Richard began knitting with his wife, and at that time Lisa was knitter for 20 years.

“I picked up the knit and the cast-on from her,” he said.

“After awhile, I looked on YouTube, and I found the purl stitch. I was at work, and I was doing the purl stitch. And I come home, and she was looking over my shoulder and she said, 'You're doing the purl stitch?' She said, 'I can put you through your paces now.'”

Richard started off with dish cloths on a diagonal and then progressed to baby blankets.

“My forte is shawls,” he said.

“Basically, you start off with four stitches and then you increase and keep going and keep going and then you start decreasing and you can make a baby blanket in a square. If you keep on doing the dish cloth-like pattern and just increase one or two stitches each row, you can get a shawl. You can do plain knitting or knit in purl. I do some fancy lacework.”

Richard doesn't follow patterns much. He makes it up as he goes.

“I've done hats with the loom knitting,” he said.

“I've made slippers before. I call them suicide slippers. I use a double strand of yarn, then I knit. Then, I sew up the back. For older people, it's a bit dangerous, especially if you're walking on wooden floors or vinyl floors because you can slip. Kids love them because they can slide like crazy and have fun. There's a rubberized liquid that you can put on the bottom that will stop it, almost like a hospital-type slipper.”

Bathmats were one of Richard's early knitting projects.

“I like it because it's relaxing,” he said.

“It's challenging, and you're using your imagination. I've been knitting now about 15 years. It keeps me away from the refrigerator when I'm watching TV at home.”

Lisa first learned knitting from nuns in first-grade at Our Lady of Grace in Keeseville.

“We made scarves for Father's Day for our dads,” she said.

“Then I didn't pick it up for awhile, and then someone gave me a doll kit, a Barbie doll dress. I didn't pick it up again for another eight years or so. My boyfriend in college, I made him a long scarf, almost Dr. Who. After my divorce, I picked it back up again. I was doing various handicrafts at the time, and when I was living on my own I started knitting again.”

Lisa wanted to knit a baby jacket for a nephew about to be born.

“I did, and I didn't know anything about different thicknesses of yarn,” she said.

“A learning experience,” Richard said.

“Yes, it was a learning experience,” Lisa said.

“It was big enough for a 4 year-old.”

“He grew into it,” Richard said.

In her professional career, Lisa worked as secretary and segued into contracting at the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

“She retired after being pregnant and having our daughter,” Richard said.

“A special-needs daughter,” Lisa said.

Richard's career off as a farmer on his family's dairy farm. After a three-year stint in the U.S. Army as a forward observer in Baumholder, Germany, Richard returned back to Champlain to work on the farm, Ayerst, Wyeth and finally Pfizer.

He retired from the latter in 2010.

“You picked up knitting about a year or so before you retired,” Lisa said.

Kris learned how to knit from her mother when she relocated back home from living away in New York City and Boston.

“I have a sweater that is 30 years old and unfinished,” she said.

“That would be nice if I could learn how to finish the sweater.”

For more information, call the Senior Center at 518-563-6180.

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