Willy’s grandma taught him to crochet as a child. But it wasn’t until he left the U.S. Marine Corps that he took up knitting as a serious hobby.

Willy, who works in Black Hills Corp.’s Wyodak Mine near Gillette, Wyoming, had completed two tours in Iraq while in the military. When he returned home he struggled with what may have been Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“I ended up starting knitting,” he told the Gillette News Record newspaper. “It kept my mind occupied … It really helped me through some tough times.”

He compares knitting to fly-fishing and tying flies. He does both and finds both activities to be calming and comforting in times of stress.

In October Willy started teaching free knitting classes at the Campbell County Public Library in Gillette. The next class will be in January, with classes continuing monthly from there. So far no men have taken his classes but if they did, they, too, might learn how relaxing it is!

“Not a lot of people knit or crochet anymore,” Willy observed. “It’s like playing the banjo or steel guitar, it’s one of those things that’s a dying art.”

Willy, we love it that you are sharing your talent with our Wyoming customers!

Read the full newspaper story here.

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