By Pam Hersh, Special Writer
It was 2 p.m. Jan. 2, 2011 — just 38 hours into the New Year.
So far, so good — I had managed to keep my New Year’s resolution to curb my expenditures on accessories, i.e., scarves, hats, wraps and junk jewelry.
Then I met Vicki Frankel Kaufman, of Monroe, who became an accessory to the crime of making me break my no-accessories-purchase resolution.
I walked into the Gift Box Gallery shop in the lobby of the University Medical Center at Princeton to buy some LifeSavers. I came out with potato chips, actually the potato-chip knitted scarf, dubbed as such by the creator, Ms. Kaufman, who works as a volunteer in the gift shop.
I was unable to resist purchasing the beautiful multicolored curly scarf, whose shape is reminiscent of a stack of potato chips tumbling out of a can. Nor could I stop myself from asking her to make me a shawl, similar to the one she was knitting for someone else. The creativity of her work, her choice of colors and materials, ribbons and threads seemed light years removed from the knit-1, purl-2 knitting skills I’ve never mastered.
”I live and breathe knitting, dream knitting, wake-up-in-the-morning, go-to-sleep-at-night thinking only of how I am going to make something or improve what I’ve already,” says the 72-year-old Monroe Township resident, proudly wearing one of her scarves — as well as her Bronx accent. “And I never follow a pattern. It is just all in my head. The designs, colors, textures — I just see what I want, often customize it a particular customer, and then translate the vision to a reality.”
It was in the Bronx — specifically, on Southern Boulevard — where Ms. Kaufman launched her career as an accessory designer, which has included jewelry making, clothes painting and, most famously, her knitted or woven creations.
”When I was 8 years old, all I wanted to do was learn to knit. I begged my mother for knitting needles, but we were so poor that knitting needles were a luxury. I had a neighbor who saw me crying outside my apartment, and she asked me what was wrong. I told her what I thought at the time was a very sad story. All I wanted to do was knit. This wonderful woman, Estelle Postar, took my hand and walked with me to the knitting store where she bought me knitting needles and my first ball of yarn. She changed my life. Every stitch — every single stitch of the millions that I have made — is in honor of Estelle,” she says.
Ms. Kaufman’s passion has left its accessory mark on all her family members to whom she gifts her wearable art. Her husband, four children and nine grandchildren are all models of her handicraft. Displaying a photo of an embryo on her cell phone, she explained how she already is plotting her creation for her great-grandchild, scheduled to arrive in August.
Over the years, however, paying customers, such as Pam Hersh, have kept her very busy. She has sold her creations at craft shows, on eBay, in gift shops like the Gift Box Gallery and even in her own store, the Jenicole Gallery, which existed from 1990 to 1997 in Howell Township.
After she and her husband moved from Plainsboro Township to a Monroe retirement community, she discovered her distaste for retirement leisure activities and decided she had to work as a volunteer, preferably doing something with knitting. She soon became a fixture at the hospital gift shop where she found an outlet for her creations, even though she notes she is “very careful not to market (her) own wares. People just have to connect with the items all on their own.”
Within a few weeks of working at the gift shop, however, she found an even more gratifying outlet for her knitting passion — teaching the youngsters in the hospital’s eating disorders program.
”The young teenagers would come down to the gift shop, see me knitting behind the counter and ask me to teach them how to do what I was doing,” she says.
Soon the eating disorders program decided to make Knitting With Vicki a regular part of the treatment program’s curriculum.
”This has turned out to be my most amazing gift that I have ever given or received. I can’t tell you how wonderful it makes me feel to be making a difference in the lives of these youngsters. They think I am helping them make blankets, scarves, hats, but, in fact, they are helping me, fulfilling me in a way that I cannot describe. It is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,” she says.
Even though I bought a scarf rather than LifeSavers, I did find a lifesaver — Ms. Kaufman, wrapped as a chic package of fabulous accessories and a big heart.
A longtime resident of Princeton, Ms. Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with the Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet.

