ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — It’s a mixed group that makes its way into a classroom at the Baldwin County Council on Aging building on Palmer Street in Robertsdale.

The ladies have plenty of life experience to talk about as they organize their needles, scissors and hooks and begin to create a rainbow of blankets, rugs, slippers and other practical and decorative items.

While members of the group keep some items for themselves, they are often hard at work on items like lap robes, slippers and heartbreakingly tiny booties for premature infants that are distributed to area hospitals and nursing homes.

The ladies are part of the “Yarn Spinners,” a group that meets every Wednesday morning at the BCCA. While they are there to have a good time, they are also there to learn. The group runs from 9 to 11 a.m.

“We teach knitting, crochet, and tatting,” says Jean Pratt of Robertsdale. Her name tag bears the legend, “Fearless Leader.”

“We have eight to nine people here during the summer,” said Doris Taylor of Foley. “In the winter we have as many as 16 here.”

While Pratt is a maven of knitting, crochet and tatting, and is always there to instruct, other members of the group are happy to share their expertise. Rita Potmesil of Robertsdale, already a fine craftswoman and an expert in the art of “tatting,” a kind of lace making, was learning to knit from Shirley Petelinski of Elsanor.

While Potmesil was going to knit a washcloth as a “starter” project, Petelinski was using circular needles and a special, “sueded” yarn to produce a multi-colored scarf that was a delight to touch. This was one project she was keeping for herself.

“Shirley is a fine craftsperson,” said Pratt. “She does Swedish weaving, and is going to teach at the Civic Center in Loxley this fall.”

“That is if gas does not go too high,” retorted Petelinski.

The group began about 10 years ago. It got its start, Pratt says, to chuckles from group members, on a bus to a casino.

“I was tatting on the bus,” said Pratt, “and two ladies saw me. They asked me later if I would teach them. Then, I was just taking an exercise class at the center, but I asked if it would be all right if we got together after the class. That’s how we got started.”

Membership in the group is free, and there is no attendance taken. What is required is a willingness to learn.

The group is also therapeutic for some, Pratt says.

“We do a wonderful service,” said Pratt, “It is therapy. We never stop talking, and the members don’t realize how much it helps them.”

“Snowbirds” are welcome additions to the group.

“Our snowbirds just about have a fit here,” said Pratt, laughing. “They bring ideas, and they make beautiful things.”

While most of the projects begin and end at the BCCA center, a few get done by way of Ohio.

“I send yarn to Ohio to a former resident, a member of our group who had to move away,” said Pratt. “She sends back ready-made preemie clothes.”

The group accepts donated yarn, skeins that might be left over from a project, to make some of their hospital projects. Sometimes, Petelinski, added, the family of a departed knitter might find bags and bags of yarn in her workroom and will donate it to the Yarn Spinners.

This is something they all understand. To a woman, they have bags and bags of yarn in their own homes. They in turn use the donated yarn for their charity projects.

“We recycle what’s donated to us,” said Pratt.

The ladies also like to troll local craft stores and yarn shops for anything that looks new, different and might make a project that will make the rest of the group “oooh” with awe and delight.

The group also pools their pull tabs for a local Girl Scout troop.

But it’s their skill with yarn and thread that have won the Yarn Spinners acclaim. It’s hard not to use words like “magic” when one sees ordinary thread and yarn converted to beautiful and useful items.

“I am going to do a punch rug,” said Virginia Boseck of Robertsdale. This was the first time Boseck was going to try a punch rug, and her friend Mary Reeves of Elberta was on hand to help her through some of the fussier details, like threading the punch and how to get started.

“I’m not sure if I will be keeping or donating this,” said Boseck of the hummingbird patterned rug.

For Connie Boilard of Elberta, making bed capes is a new adventure.

“I’m a beginner,” said Boilard. “This cape is the first thing I’ve knitted, ever and I have spent so much time on it I, may keep it for myself.”