Forget all those preconceived notions about how knitting is just for little old ladies. This isn’t your grandmother’s knitting group.

Mishell Cash, a Covington area resident, took up the challenge of learning to knit this winter and now she’s starting a fiber art group that will meet twice a month at Ristretto’s Coffee and Wine.

This winter wasn’t the first time Cash had tried knitting. When she and her husband first moved to the area from Spokane in 2005 she picked up some yarn and a pair of knitting needles but soon grew frustrated.

“I didn’t even make it two weeks,” Cash said.

Then last year Cash was working at an RV dealership and she met a couple who would both knit while they waited for their RV to be serviced. Cash struck up a conversation with Tim and Louise Brown and commissioned Tim to create a scarf for her. Soon she was inspired to give knitting another try, she now fondly refers to Tim and Louise as her knitting mentors.

This time Cash was determined to learn and not give up like she did before. She began visiting local yarn shops and soon signed up for knitting lessons in December.

“I took a lesson every week in the evening, then I would go to the coffee shop (across the street from the yarn shop) and study my knitting books and practice my stitches,” Cash said.

Cash often has her yarn bag in tow — a large purple bag with yellow polka dots, in which she carries everything she might need, from yarn and needles to smaller tools and books on knitting. Cash loves to visit yarn stores and knitting groups, getting project ideas, making new friends and improving her knitting skills. So far, she has visited yarn shops as far away as Snohomish and Ocean Shores.

“I think what got me hooked was the portability,” Cash said.

She was previously a quilter, a hobby that she had taken up in high school. Cash eventually gave up quilting in her 30s, she said it was taking up to much space, getting too expensive and she found she was having to choose between quilting and doing other things like traveling with her husband.

“My husband and I do tons of outdoor travel,” Cash said. “I can knit on the way to our adventures. I even knitted in a Nordic yurt…I can still mountaineer and hike and snowshoe and knit. I don’t have to choose.”

A desire to connect with other knitters and the fact that there aren’t many yarn stores in the immediate area for knitters to gather at inspired Cash to start her own group.

“The theme of the fiber art group is social knitting, keeping it fun,” Cash said. “It’s male and female, knitters and crocheters…I just want to find people who like to knit and like to travel.”

Cash envisions growing the group, and hopes someday the group could do some traveling.

The group meets at Ristretto’s, a perfect location according to Cash, because of the atmosphere, the food and the fact that it is open later in the evenings.

“I really wanted a place with wine and food and it’s five minutes from my house — and I hang out here anyways,” Cash said.

Cash said all ages and skill levels are welcome, even those who are just curious about learning to knit or crochet.

“You don’t have to be 5 or 18 to learn,” Cash said. “If you didn’t have a mother or a grandmother who taught you, you can learn later in life.”

The group, K2, P2, W2, meets at 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of each month at Ristretto’s. Cash is blogging about her adventures in knitting at mishellmybell69.blogspot.com.

Reach Katherine Smith ksmith@covingtonreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.