Instructors helped novices complete their work. The items will be donated to local charities. Deborah Panighetti is the shop owner and the idea for a stitch-in was conceived as an appropriate way to honor a deceased friend. Upon her death, the friend's husband had donated boxes of her yarn to Panighetti.

She saved it for a year, "waiting to think of a way to use it that would honor her more than just making something for myself out of it," Panighetti said. She wants to make the store a gathering place, not only for socializing but also to make positive changes, and this seemed a good starting point.

One woman brought in 200 hats that she and her mother had knitted. The stitch-in was for all ages and will become a monthly event, the last Sunday of the month.

Deborah and husband John will join the Avon Breast Cancer Walk in July--her fifth, his third. She did the 60-mile version twice, and this is her third 40-miler.

If the name Panighetti sounds familiar, it should. John is a fourth-generation Los Gatan. His father, Jack Panighetti, who died two years ago, was Los Gatos postmaster and very active in the community.

HOUSE CONCERT: Three artists influenced by Japan held an evening outdoor concert recently: Kevin Masaya, who plays the three-stringed lute or shamisen; Lo Sachiko, a poet; and Megumi, a storyteller who brings Japanese folk tales to life with gesture and expressions. The three are all part Japanese.

Masaya lives and teaches in Santa Cruz, and was accompanied by Mike Penny, a lute player, and John Delp, a drummer. His instrument is called a dumbek, and is Arabic in origin. Masaya is the only foreigner ever to have won an award in Japan's National Tsugaru Championship tournaments. He is also a composer and his California tsugaru shamisen style includes elements of jazz, bluegrass, death metal and hip hop. His phone is 541.517.4693.

Sachiko lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a professional gardener. She was inspired to write her book of poetry, Brothers Banyans Bones, after the death of her brother in war. Her love of life came from him, she said. Writing poetry became a means of dealing with her grief.

After three years of working in the film industry in Hollywood, Sachiko came back. Her mother is Eleanor Clarkson, who taught seventh-grade biology at Fisher. Her father, Al Clarkson, a think tank director, has written a science fiction book, Heaven Engine.

As Lorraine Clarkson, Sachiko was a 1995 grad of Los Gatos High School. She changed her last name when she was in the movie business to her mother's Japanese name. It means good fortune.

GRANT FOR GIRLS: The Mountain Winery Kids' Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Mountain Winery, has awarded $50,000 to the Joseph George sport and science enrichment program and science workshop. The program ties together the physiological aspect of sport with math and science.

The Alum Rock district school was chosen because sports funding for that middle school and surrounding ones is sparse, particularly for girls. Some 80 percent of Joseph George students are on free or reduced lunch programs. And girls in that community are traditionally not encouraged to pursue math and science.

This program aims to correct those imbalances. Math and science classes will be held in the Joseph George Science Workshop, equipped by the Alum Rock Educational Foundation.

Dr. George Castro is volunteer director of the program; Michelle Gilbert is the coach; and softball players from San José State University and Santa Clara U teams serve as assistant coaches.

Board members of the winery foundation all live in Saratoga or Los Gatos--Jack Smith, Dave House and Rebecca Jepsen of Saratoga; Bill Hirschman, Liz Dodson, Bernie Greenfield and Stuart Ferguson of Los Gatos. Ferguson is CEO of the Mountain Winery; Dodson is president of the foundation.

NEW NAME: The former Tercera Gallery has repositioned itself as the Linda Durnell Gallery and will now represent artists from the East Coast and Europe, as well as the West. "I see new possibilities for collectors by bringing in established artists such as Connie Fox and Jorg Madlener," Durnell says.

The gallery held a Collectors Night this week, where potential collectors can become more art savvy and learn what to look for before they buy. That event will be held regularly, with artists brought in to speak. The work of sculptor David Middlebrook and painter Gordon Smedt, both Los Gatans, are shown at the gallery.

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