New to town: Men’s knitting group offers conversation, creative outlet
East Northport newcomer David Lacagnina just launched the Northport Men’s Knitting and Crochet Group; the first meeting will take place at Northport Library on the morning of April 25.
David Lacagnina was a city guy for 49 years. Not anymore.
The almost 50-year-old, an East Northport resident since November, looked at home sitting inside Moksha Cafe in Northport Village last weekend, his phone face down on the table in front of him, a vanilla latte and berry scone beside it. In his hands were two knitting needles; Lacagnina was working on a round, quietly looping cobalt yarn (100% wool if you’re keeping track) into the beginnings of an infinity scarf.
On his tee shirt was an image of Bigfoot, who was also knitting.
This Saturday morning, Lacagnina will host the first ever Northport Men’s Knitting and Crochet Group at Northport Library, from 9 to 11am.
A knitter for 15 years, Lacagnina acknowledges how immersive needlework can be. “You get into this zone, where all of the nonsense from outside is gone,” he said, describing the clarity and stress relief such a focused and mindful habit provides. “All of your own nonsense is gone.” Knitting is like a flow-state, he said, one similar to meditation. But it can also be social.
Hooked
Lacagnina was introduced to knitting by his good friend, Michele Scotto Trani, who he’s known since 1991 (she, coincidentally, moved to Northport with her husband Doug in 2014). The two grew up in Brooklyn, attended neighboring high schools and remain friends today. Years ago, during a visit to see Lacagnina and his now-husband Stephen, Scotto took out her knitting needles.
It was about the same time Katherine Heigl’s character, Izzie Stevens, brought knitting into the pop culture spotlight via the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy; in the second season, Stevens is shown knitting a sweater, which she uses as a calming activity to balance out her work in the high-stakes hospital environment. Her scenes made knitting a recognizable, soothing hobby (ChatGTP says Heigl is an avid knitter in real life and would often knit between takes on set to manage the stress of long filming days.)
David wasn’t into it.
At the time, he was commuting back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan: 1.5 hours in the morning, two hours in the evening. “It was this horrible, horrible commute,” he said. He found himself going through three to four books a week, sitting on the express bus, listening to music, playing video games on his Game Boy. Day after day, there was only so much he could do.
He went back to Scotto. “Teach me how to knit,” he said. After that first lesson, countless YouTube tutorials, some motherly knitting advice and the patience to withstand many failed projects, David was hooked.
“Gradually I would bring it on the bus, and practice and practice, and I just took off with it,” he said. “I thrived on it. It was something I loved to do. At the end of it, you have this thing that you made that was not a thing before. It was just a pile of string and two sticks.”
A creative outlet and community
Growing up, Lacagnina would draw, sculpt with playdoh and write. He took up theater and speech and debate in high school. “I always had some way to express myself,” he said – something he needed as a gay kid growing up in Brooklyn in the ’80s and ’90s. Back then, at his all boys high school, there was an informal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” rule. “I did not know my people,” he said. But he had his outlets and in them, created little communities.
As an adult living in Staten Island and commuting to Manhattan, he lost touch with his creativity.
“My creative outlet was sending emails. That was the extent of me being able to have my own voice,” he said. The fluorescent lights at his banking job weren't helping either.
“I needed something creative to feed my soul,” he said. Knitting did that. He was making things again.
His first scarf was awful, he said: “It was 100% acrylic yarn and felt like Brillo. But I did it.”
Before long though, he was making hats and scarves he was proud of. His husband requested wool socks. He made those too. He even opened an Etsy shop, Cawfee Guy Knits.
Through knitting, Lacagnina found an online community he could bond with and would sometimes visit mom-and-pop yarn shops in Staten Island where he would “hang out with, it was only ever older women there, and I got this sense of community back,” he said. “You develop these dialogues and this communication, and even if it’s just about that one one thing, you’re engaging with someone else. And it’s phenomenal.”
Feeds the soul
After three decades living in Staten Island, Lacagnina is currently embracing his move to suburbia. While familiar with the area due to his many visits to see Scotto, he is now acclimating to his new surroundings – and is excited to begin building a new community.
The Northport Men’s Knitting and Crochet Group, he hopes, will be a solid start.
“I’m really hoping to get a bunch of guys who knit and/or crochet, or want to learn,” he said. Connecting with others remains a top priority.
“I feel like guys need a space to sit there and talk,” he explained. A communications major in college, he’s not afraid to take the lead. “I can always find something to talk about,” he said.
Conversation doesn’t need to be deep and could be about anything; as yarnwork sometimes lends itself to quiet, not talking and just listening is also an option for anyone who shows up, Lacagnina said. To do something with other men in a space that fosters learning and opens up opportunities for dialogue is invaluable, he said.
“Communicating with somebody else in person, being able to have a conversation and tell stories and listen to stories, that’s what I want this group to be,” Lacagnina said. “I want people to be able to form a little community around something they like to do.”
Messages of interest are already reaching Lacagnina via his Instagram page. He doesn’t shy away from admitting that the group is partly for him, too. “My biggest hope for this is that it becomes an ongoing thing,” he said, emphasizing that, to him, the gathering is just as important as the creating. “I need it, I need it as much as I need the knitting to feed my soul,” he said.
The Northport Men’s Knitting and Crochet Group is open to beginner and established knitters and crocheters, and will take place on the last Saturday of every month, from 9 to 11am, at the Northport Library, with possible pop-ups and other community gatherings in the works. Participants can bring their own supplies, though yarn and needles will be available for purchase at each meeting. For more information and to keep up-to-date, check out the official Northport Men’s Knitting and Crochet Group here. The first library meet-up is on April 25.
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