Eleanor Hendler, who turns 99 in August, prefers to stand while using a knitting machine. She's a member of Butler Machine Knitters, whose members get together once a month to share what they've made and see a demonstration from one of the members.

BUTLER TWP — Eleanor Hendler, who turns 99 in August, isn't your typical granny knitting in the corner. For one thing, using needles to “knit one, purl two” would cut into her dartball league games.

Oh sure, since she quit skiing at 85 and stopped her flying lessons at 89 she has more time for her hobby. She just uses a knitting machine to indulge in it.

“This lady makes the most gorgeous afghans. She puts all of us to shame,” said her friend Shirley Grossman, 89, of Butler Township, who's a fellow member of the Butler Machine Knitters.

The club is a group of machine knitters who get together once a month to — as Grossman put it — “share what we made during the month and we have a demonstration from one of the members and we always have dessert and coffee.”

There are many types of knitting machines, from a simple board to electronic devices that can be programmed by computer.

The ones Hendler and Grossman are using at Hendler's home are older machines each with two beds of needles and a shuttle that runs along the top setting the needles to binding the yarn in patterns.

Hendler stands up to run her shuttle over the machine's beds by hand. In the adjoining room, Grossman uses a foot pedal to set her shuttle moving.

“I'm making a sweater for my great-granddaughter,” said Grossman. “To do something like this will take about five hours. Then by hand you have to put it together.”Hendler said, “I'll be starting on my black and gold afghans. They auction one every year at my church's fundraiser.“Both years the Penguins won, I made an afghan with a picture of the (Stanley) Cup on it,” said Hendler.Hendler and Grossman have new projects but they're being made on old machines.“These are Japanese machines. They aren't being made much anymore,” said Grossman. “We are trying to hold onto what we have.”These days, she said, the machines can only be bought from a dealer and can only be repaired by craftsmen three states away.Grossman remembers mailing one of her machines to an out-of-state repairman at a cost of $25 in postage, one way.Both women are longtime practitioners of machine knitting.Hendler said, “I got my first machine when my daughter was 2, and she's now 60.”Grossman said, “Many years ago, there was a class at BC3 on machine knitting. I had never seen a knitting machine before and decided I needed one.”About 30 years ago, Grossman helped found the Butler Machine Knitters.

Over the years, the membership has waxed and waned, Grossman said.“Right now, we've got about 20 people in the group. We've had quite the influx in the last year,” she said, adding that members come from as far away as Meadville to take part in the gatherings at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church, 127 Franklin St., the third Thursday of each month.Hendler, who's the treasurer, said the group always picks a charity to help with its handiwork. Last year the machine knitters made close to 200 hats for cancer patients whose treatments cost them their hair.Still, said Grossman, some have the attitude that the Butler Machine Knitters aren't really knitters.She said, “The attitude is that things are supposed to be handmade, but our hands are telling the machine what to do. There are different settings for different stitches.”Hendler said however it's done, she's keeping up a knitting tradition.“I started hand knitting at 8 or 9. My mother was a knitter, and my grandmother taught me,” she said.

This is one of two knitting machines that Shirley Grossman owns. Grossman said, “These are Japanese machines. They aren't being made much anymore.”

Shirley Grossman, left, and Eleanor Hendler got together recently at Grossman's home in Butler Township to do some knitting on Grossman's machines.