FARMINGTON — Sam Welch and his wife Carol leave their Farmington home and head for Autumn Glow Senior Activity Center every Thursday morning to attend a craft class.
Sam knits while Carol crochets.
Sam knitted his first sweater because of a need. The couple was on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England, when he found he needed a sweater to keep him warm. “We were on our first mission. It was mighty cold in England,” he said.
“The first sweater he did didn’t have a pocket. It is the only sweater he made that didn’t have a pocket,” said Carol.
Sam didn’t learn to knit as young as many knitters do.
“I was almost 67,” Sam said. “I will be 87 in July.”
In one area in England the couple lived about a mile and a half from town, so they would walk into town.
“It was nice to go for a walk but the wind was always in my face. That’s what led me to learn to knit,” Sam said.
While Sam likes to sit with his circular knitting needle in his hands, his wife will sits alongside him crocheting.
“I can’t crochet,” Sam admitted.
“He hasn’t tried,” Carol said.
But Sam said when he was young his mother tried to teach him to crochet a rag rug, but he just couldn’t learn to do the fine art of crocheting.
“I’ve learned to knit on circular needles. There is no limit on how wide I can knit,” Sam said. “It is just knit one, purl one. You have to keep track of which row you are on.”
Sam has learned a lot since that first sweater he made. One of his accomplishments to that he can take a pattern and make it into a sweater.
Sam wore a tan wool sweater he had made to the center, but the wool is too warm, he said, even on a chilly, snowy February morning.
He said he does the “Jacob’s Coat” approach to knitting. He uses scraps of yarn of many colors to make afghans.
Sam pulled three female sweaters from a bag and spread them out on a table.
“My wife looks very charming in these sweaters. It pleases me when she wears them,” Sam said.
He pointed out how he always sews an extra button on the inside of the sweater just in case one is lost from the sweater.
“I think I could teach anyone over the age of 6 to knit. All stitches are knit and purl. It’s a series of knots,” Sam said, as his finger guided the yarn to the needle so that the stitches are all the same size.
Sam knits wherever he goes, including while on two missions to England and one to Australia.
“I knitted on the bus,” he said. “Many conversations were started when (knitting). Not a lot of men knit.”
When Sam and Carol’s grandchildren got married, Sam knitted a baby afghan for their first child.
“They are still using it for the third child,” Sam said.
Sam has advice for people of all ages.
“If you want to learn to do something, do it now. Don’t wait until you have time to do it,” he said.
Sam doesn’t know exactly how many sweaters he has knitted, but he made them for 16 missionaries. He also made seven or eight for himself, and four for his wife. He’s also made some for all of his married kids and some grandkids.
“I have made close to 100,” he said. “It takes from 40 to 60 hours to make one. The pay comes in knowing you can do it and accomplish something.”
Sam is a chemical engineer who retired from Hill Air Force Base in 1980. He was a junior in high school when Pearl Harbor was bombed. So as soon as he could, he joined the Naval Air Force and became a pilot.
The couple has six children. They have 23 grandchildren and 46 great-grandchildren.
“I have arthritis in my hands. This keeps my hands opening and shutting,” he said of knitting.
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