Bright blue, deep brown and pale purple yarns string from half-finished scarves and afghan blankets to the busy fingers and needles of four women in a small room under the main stairs in Mass Media and Technology Hall.

It’s 9 a.m., and building service attendants Terri Jaworski, Brenda Croslin, Sheila Barlow and Tawanna Key are taking their lunch break.

While most of the student traffic passing through Mass Media at this hour is groggy and recently arisen, these women have been at work for five hours already.

Some days, they have a potluck lunch of chili-dogs and chips or doughnuts, and some days they bring their own food, but this semester they’ve picked up a common lunch-hour pastime- crochet.

Key taught herself to crochet almost 30 years ago as a hobby.

Since then, she has crafted baby blankets for eight of her grandchildren, and one day in August, she brought a blanket-in-progress she was working on for the expected ninth. Her work caught Jaworski’s eye, and she asked Key to teach her how.

Jaworski quickly finished an afghan blanket for her daughter, Angela, a dental hygiene student at Western.

She loved it, so Jaworski started on a matching pillow case and rug for her and another blanket for her husband, Tommy.

“She’s got about five going,” Barlow said.

Since then, Croslin and Barlow have joined in.

“It’s time-consuming, but it relaxes you,” Croslin said.

Barlow was the last to pick it up. She started about two weeks ago with a scarf of pale blue yarn laced with silver thread.

“Watching them, I thought, ‘Well shoot, I might as well try it,’” she said. “I’m just learning.”

“She’s doing fine,” Key said, glancing at Barlow’s stitches.

They all have projects they’re planning to start next, most for family members. Tommy Jaworski’s incomplete, thick, brown scarf was peaking out of Terri’s bag, but she was working on a fuzzy indigo neck-warmer for herself.

“My neck has to be warm in winter time,” Brazil native Jaworski said.

Jaworski, Croslin and Barlow have worked together in Mass Media for the past four years, and Key works in Tate Page and visits during their early lunch.

“I don’t know if you call it a family or you just call it a team,” Jaworski said.

Either way, crocheting gives the women relaxation and a sense of quiet community during their break at work. Most of them crochet at home in the evenings too.

“I do it a couple of hours here and there, until my eyes start getting crossed,” Barlow said, laughing.

Reach Eileen Ryan at diversions@chherald.com.