If you have ever been to the library during lunch at this school, then you should be familiar with Mrs. Lin and her boxes of knitting supplies laid out on one of the library tables. Every Tuesday, she’s there before most people have even sat down, sorting yarn and needles with the same calm patience she uses to explain a new stitch. A small group gathers around her and the table turns into a meeting spot for anyone willing to try knitting, whether it be for the first time or as a practiced expert. This table often feels like a tiny island in the middle of the lunchtime storm.
Victoria Vernay (’29) is usually among the club participants. The table stays mostly quiet, with the knitting providing a steady presence where people can forget about all their academic pressures and focus on the motion of sliding the needles through loops of yarn. “I decided to do knitting because I just saw it in the library while I was passing through. I usually spend time doing my homework in the library, and I thought it [knitting] seemed like a cool thing to do,” Vernay said.
By the time she sits down, Vernay already has her AirPods in, her fingers moving with precise focus. She rarely looks up. “It’s relaxing,” she said. “It gets repetitive in a nice way.” Her current project is a soft pink baby blanket, which is the starting project for all the knitting club participants. When asked about how long the blanket would take to complete, she shrugged. “Each row takes five or ten minutes, so it’s going to take a while.” The blanket grows slowly, like watching a plant sprout in a time lapse.
The blanket is part of a running collection of blankets that the club donates to a local charity. This counts as community service hours for students making the blankets. “People should join,” Vernay said. “It’s just so easy. No pressure. And you don’t need to know anything.”
The charity component is central to the club’s purpose, though it runs quietly in the background of the soft clicking of needles. Each blanket goes to a nearby organization that supports single parents and young families. Originally, the group donated through a local craft store, but after it closed, Lin found a new organization in Tanglewood named Bergen Family Center to donate to. On a good week, she estimates that the table produces several inches of progress. When the stacks reach a certain height, she delivers them in the name of the school. They have about six completed blankets already and several more approaching the finish line.
At the head of the table sits Mrs. Lin, who graduated from Tenafly High School “many, many, many years ago,” as she puts it, and whose daughters Lunette (’25) and Madeline Shaw (’22) are also alumni. While her knitting enthusiasm might look like something she has always been able to achieve, it’s not. Lin first learned to knit in middle school and had no patience for it. “Actually, I first learned knitting when I was in middle school and I hated it,” she said, laughing. “My mom did most of the knitting back then.” She didn’t return to learn until she was an adult working long hours in the city. A small apartment ruled out any hobby that required space, so she tried knitting again, this time teaching herself from a children’s instruction book. “There was no YouTube,” she said. “If children could learn from it, I figured I could too.” She has been knitting ever since.
When Lin first thought about starting the knitting program, her main motivation was her belief that high school students need something to help them put their mind at ease from their rigorous learning schedule. “I thought knitting could be something that de-stresses the students,” she said. Her method is simple. Students sign in, pick up whatever blanket is in progress, and add a few rows. “All I ask them to do is one knit stitch,” she said. “Ninety percent of the people who come here didn’t know how to knit before, but they can do that within five minutes.”
Aside from high schoolers needing to put their worries on the sidelines and focus on a simple art, Lin offers teaching knitting to adults as well. Lin volunteers on the first Monday of every month at the Tenafly Public library, where residents of all ages come to knit hats, scarves, or whatever project they bring in. “You would be surprised,” she said. “People think knitting is only for old grannies, but in New York, there are groups for men to knit. A lot of the famous textile designers are men,” Lin said, smiling. “I was very happy that half the people who come to knit with me are actually boys.”
Her philosophy for the club is simple. No pressure. No commitment. No perfection. “It’s good to try something new,” Lin said. She wants students to have a place where they can sit for five minutes or forty and learn a skill that might stay dormant until adulthood, the same way hers did. “Maybe later on they’ll think, hey, maybe I’ll give it a try again.”
At her table, the library noise fades into the background. Students pass though, sit, pick up half-finished blankets, and begin quietly shaping something that will warm a baby they will never meet. It’s a small portion of the school day, but for many, one of the rare places where the only thing expected of them is a single, steady knit stitch.
