Why knitting is hot again

December 31, 2013

Knitting – once considered a necessary cost-saving domestic chore, a sign of sedentary dotage (something only for grannies) and an activity to keep women’s hands busy lest their pretty heads entertain too many revolutionary thoughts – is casting off its cultural baggage.

These days, knitting has become a DIY fashion statement, community activity, educational device, health-care tool (the “new yoga”) and new form of urban graffiti. (Okay, that last one has to be explained right away: Yarnbombing is an underground global movement by people calling themselves “guerrilla knitters.” They cover items such as buses, parking meters, telephone poles, trees, doors, benches – anything in the public realm – with colourful yarn as an act of feel-good community coziness. In fact, International Yarnbombing Day, an annual event, was started by Joann Matvichuk, a knitter and crocheter from Lethbridge, Alta., on June 11, 2011.)

“It’s about bloody time,” Kaffe Fassett, the celebrated American-born textile artist, laughs about the resurgence of interest in knitting. “It has taken people a long time,” he adds over the phone from his studio in London, England, “to appreciate that sitting down and rubbing two sticks together with a string of yarn between them not only creates something beautiful and truly creative, but is one of the most life-enhancing activities around. It just makes you feel good.” Fassett, 76, is the author of more than 30 books on quilting, knitting and embroidery; his work in those media has been exhibited around the world. Fassett has knit “everything from the tiniest little scarf for a teddy bear to huge hand-knit drapes featuring colourful fantasy maps of the world.” Lauren Bacall, Barbra Streisand, Candice Bergen and Princess Michael of Kent are a few of the people who have commissioned custom-knit clothing from him.

Knit-Knights have a way with yarn

December 30, 2013

You won’t find Knit-Knight members knit-bombing or otherwise crafting in the streets.

But every Monday night, you will find them ensconced in the lower-level community room at Conshohocken Free Library, transforming miles of yarn into everything from gorgeous sweaters and exquisite baby garb to the special request items they donate to hospitals, non-profits and U.S. military personnel.

Knit-Knights was founded by Conshohocken’s Peggy O’Neill nearly eight years ago and has been going strong ever since.

The group meets every Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 and an impressive 300 members — ranging from one in her mid-90s to an occasional teen — are listed in its roll book.

Nearly 90 are active, and 40-plus routinely show up for Knit-Knights’ weekly craft sessions. They come from all over, too. The Conshohocken-Plymouth-Whitemarsh area is well represented, but so is Roxborough, King of Prussia, Blue Bell, Pennlyn, Collegeville, Royersford and points even farther afield.

“We have one lady who used to live in Plymouth but moved to Upper Darby,” O’Neill says. “She works downtown, but on Mondays, she leaves her car at a different train station so that she can make it to Knit-Knights after work.”