That’s what knitters across the area are discovering as they come together to share their craft and some conversation.

“These girls are absolutely fabulous,” said Donna Walker of Apex, a member of the Kniffty Knitters group that meets weekly at Borders in Cary. “It’s a group of educated, well-spoken women who have a common interest,” Walker said.

Walker has been coming to the weekly group since the spring, though she said her 40 years of knitting have mostly been solo.

“I’m not a group joiner,” she said. “But I love this group.”

And on a recent Tuesday morning it was easy to see why. A pot of tea at one end of the table, knitting patterns and plush balls of yarn strewn across, the women chatted about family and knitting as their needles gently clicked and clacked away. A half-finished lacy shawl draped off one woman’s needles and a newly completed pair of socks were displayed proudly in the center of the table.

“I am just in awe of the women I’ve met,” said Fredi Blume of Cary. Blume is a member of several local groups, including Kniffty Knitters; the Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild, which is for spinners, knitters, crocheters and “anyone who is interested in fibers”; and the Ol’ North State Knitting Guild.

The knitting guild, aside from being a social group, includes education as part of its mission. Each monthly meeting has an agenda intended to teach members something new about the craft, from introducing members to new tools and gadgets to teaching techniques like lace work and spinning.

“It’s a good idea to have some sort of social thing to meet people and learn different things,” said Laura Cappelletti of Holly Springs, who joined the guild in the fall. “I got some advice just the other night when I was there, how to join a lace border.”

Cappelletti said she wasn’t really looking to join a group, but after seeing a postcard at Shuttles, Needles and Hooks, a yarn shop in downtown Cary, she figured she would check it out.

“When I went to the first meeting the thing I like was they had topics and some education. That was appealing to me,” Cappelletti said. “Some of these women are just so experienced. They’ve been knitting for so many years.” And you never know when an unexpected friendship may pop up.

After moving to Cary in 2005, Blume made her first local friends after reading about the Twisted Threads group in The News & Observer.

“That’s where my first introduction to friends in this area came from,” she said. “They are an incredibly industrious, warm and creative group.”

Members of Twisted Threads introduced her to other local groups and it all grew from there.

While Blume has been knitting all her life — her grandparents own a yarn shop and her mother taught her to knit as a child — it wasn’t until seven years ago living in Boston that she joined her first knitting group.

“I met several women in the newsroom who had been knitting,” said Blume, a former newspaper reporter. “We formed this group and it soon became not just a knitting group but a support group.”

The women talked each other through life’s challenges — illness in the family, trouble at work — and shared the good times. They also taught each other a thing or two about knitting.

Blume said she has learned how to spin her own yarn from raw fiber with a spindle, though it’s not something she’s taken up in earnest. She has also gotten into felting — purposefully shrinking a 100-percent wool object in the wash — after being inspired by other knitters.

“They get you into different aspects of fiber and yarn,” Blume said.

Above all, Blume said she has enjoyed the camaraderie of the women in these groups over the years.

“Maybe it’s just as you get older you discover women,” she said. “You see these groups as a way to get to know other women.”