OSKALOOSA — Louise Phillips says she likes to knit because it’s relaxing yet she can accomplish something at the same time.

Phillips knits for a hobby, but her hobby impacts the lives of many people.

Phillips recently knitted 40 stocking caps for the United Way’s winter coat drive. She knits baby hats for newborns at Mahaska Hospital. Also, she is knitting scarves for Special Olympics athletes who will compete in February.

Whenever Phillips has some free time, she likes to knit.

Phillips has been knitting for the United Way coat drive for three or four years after she saw an ad in The Herald looking for knitters to make things for the coat drive.

“I work on them all year,” she said. “I’ve started on stuff for next year.”

Phillips also has a plastic sack full of 15 baby hats ready for delivery to the maternity ward at Mahaska Hospital. She began making the baby hats this past year while her mother was in the hospital.

“It was an easy project while sitting in the hospital,” she said. “I’m still working on some now.”

Phillips belongs to a loose-knit group of Oskaloosa knitters, and the group is teaming up with counterparts in Eddyville to make scarves for Special Olympians.

Phillips has been knitting since 1958, when she was in her early 20s.

“I was at a friend’s house and she was knitting. She taught me how to knit,” Phillips said.

Knitting is a hobby for Phillips, but she said that she has sold some afghans at craft shows.

Phillips doesn’t need any special equipment for her hobby — just some knitting needles or a circular, plastic loom that can be found at discount retail stores. She said that yarn is usually easy to get. However, special yarn for items like socks can be found only in specialty shops in cities.

Phillips doesn’t have to worry about her yarn supply.

“I have a yarn stash that would rival Wal-Mart’s,” she said.

Phillips’ aunt Vivian Shipman had passed away about three years ago, and while going through her things, the family discovered that she had 10 30-gallon barrels of yarn in her basement. Phillips said the yarn was split between three people.

Yarn now costs about $2.50 to $3 a skien. It costs about $30 to make an afghan, Phillips said.

“You can’t count your time” if you are selling an afghan. If you included labor, “people can’t afford it,” she said.

“You have to love knitting or crocheting,” she said. “You do it for the fun and the love of the hobby.”

Knitting is different from crocheting. Knitting involves using needles while crocheting requires a hook. Also, “the stitches are way different,” Phillips said.

Neither method is difficult to work with — it depends on what you are comfortable with, she said.

“I can crochet faster than I can knit,” she said.

Phillips is prolific with her knitting. Besides knitting for charity events, she has knitted items for local schools. Her granddaughter is on the Oskaloosa High School freshman volleyball team, so Phillips knitted maroon stocking caps for the team. She also crocheted afghans for the William Penn University softball and volleyball teams for fund-raisers.

This past winter, Phillips had plenty of time to work on her craft. She had surgery on both knees — one was done in January and the other in April — so she couldn’t move around a lot.

If this winter is a repeat of this past year, Phillips knows how to pass the time.

“If it’s like this again, I’ll be making hats like crazy,” she said. “I can’t afford to fall.”

It doesn’t take Phillips long to complete a project.

“I can complete one in three weeks to a month,” Phillips said of making an afghan. “I can make a stocking cap in two hours. A scarf will take me a day.”

Phillips likes to knit or crochet while watching TV.

Phillips was proud of an American flag that she knitted and entered in the Southern Iowa Fair. She submitted it in the genealogy category — the stars in the flag had names of her ancestors who had fought in the American Revolution and the Civil War.

“I got a blue ribbon and a best of show ribbon,” she said.

She also remembers another American flag that she knitted that she would rather forget.

Phillips’ brother, Larry Shipman, of Denver, Colo., is a Civil War buff, and he traveled out East and saw a Civil War-era flag that someone had knitted. So, he asked if Phillips could knit one for him.

“It was just my worst nightmare,” she said. “It took me over a year to make this flag.”

The flag was 6 feet by 4 feet and it required a special yarn that was the hardest that she had ever worked with.

“I told him never again will I make something like this,” she said.

While she will not knit another Civil War-era flag, Phillips likes to get together with other like-minded people to share her love of knitting.

Phillips belongs to a group of knitters who meet at the Oskaloosa Public Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Knitter Bellina Buban started the group about three years ago.

“It’s not actually a club. It’s a group that gets together,” she said. This past week, about 13 knitters gathered for a meeting, she added.

The group is open to anyone of any age who wants to knit or learn how to knit. If you want to learn, all you have to do is show up with some needles and yarn, and the members will teach you how to do it, she said.

Herald Editor Duane Nollen can be reached by email at oskynews@oskyherald.com