Wyoming veteran teaches others the skill of knitting
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — Willy Rosier never kept it a secret, but that didn’t make it any more believable.
It would be a strange thing to lie about, but still, he just doesn’t fit the image most people see in their minds. They think of brittle-handed retirees in rocking chairs, not burly, bearded war veterans.
Even his wife, Sara, tried calling him out on it when they first met. That hand-stitched beanie he wore, and the others he showed her like it — he just did not seem like the type to have crafted each of those winter hats himself.
Luckily, he has plenty of evidence to back his claims.
Now Sara does too. Like the pile of knitted one-off socks he made for her, each one unique and without a matching sock to complete the pair. The Rosiers have been together for eight years and have children with baby pictures dressed in knitted hats and baby booties, all courtesy of Willy’s hands.
“A lot of people don’t believe me,” he said. “I’m 300 pounds, 6-foot with a beard. They don’t believe I knit.”
But nevertheless, Willy is sharing his passion for the yarn and stitch with the community and establishing himself as perhaps the most unassuming knitting instructor in Gillette.
Willy began teaching free knitting classes at the Campbell County Public Library in October. After a second class held in November, the next gathering is slated for January and expected to continue monthly from there on, the Gillette News Record reported.
So far, the makeup of the class has been quite different from Willy’s own.
“A lot of them wanted to learn how to knit. Plain and simple,” he said. “I had all age groups in my class. Surprisingly there were no other guys.”
Through his first two classes, he said the turnout has been strong. Mothers and...