Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
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Bizarre. Top story on fark right now.
Young urban Americans get enthused over knitting
Thu Feb 5, 9:21 AM ET Add Offbeat - AFP to My Yahoo!
NEW YORK (AFP) - The December opening of Knit New York, a cafe and boutique rolled into one, shows a revival in knitting as a hobby.
People of all ages, male and female, also young people, are discovering or returning to the favored pastime of their grandmothers.
At Knit Cafe, people are queuing up for courses. Marianne Arroyo taught her 32-year-old daughter Julie there.
"It's the perfect combination between an excellent cappuccino and really interesting classes," she said Thursday.
Sarah Dan, who studies at New York University, knits everywhere she goes: class, metro, cinema.
"I did a whole sweater once in a law class," she said.
Dan, who has been knitting for just six months, finds that, although not cheap, it is a gratifying hobby. "It's an expensive hobby, but satisfying and it's a great way to meet people," he said.
Owen Fisher, retired, started to click the needles in 1997 while undergoing cancer treatment. Doctors recommended knitting would keep his discomfort under control while he was receiving chemotherapy.
"I've never stopped knitting since" then, he said. "It frees me from the social barriers. I basically live here, they even ordered my special tea brand."
"Knitting breaks barriers and encourages communication," said Miriam Maltagliati, boss of the knitting venues. She is amazed at the success she has seen with them.
"Who could have imagined that, in a city where no one speaks to anyone anymore?"
And she adds: "Yarns are more interesting to knit than they used to be."
"Knitting is the new yoga," said Lily Chin, author of the "Urban Knitter" who works with fashion designers Ralph Lauren and Vera Wang.
"People are tired of looking alike," she says. "Knitting can help them express their individuality."
Knitting hobby experts say the stress-reducing activity is gaining in popularity. The percentage of knitters below the age of 45 went from nine to 18 percent between 1996 and 2002.
At New York's Cabrini Medical Center, knitting is recommended to ease pain for people who are suffering under difficult treatment. Sewing, pottery, painting and design all help people who are sick "to feel they are still human" despite the pain, said Helen Carrier, nursing chief there.
Paige West, an anthropologist at the Columbia University describes people in urban areas as "alienated from the products of their daily work -- they never see a material product of their labor."
But knitting helps, she says, allowing the development of a social relationship between objects and people, as well as providing a material byproduct of their efforts.
"People can develop a social relationship with the objects and the people" allowing "some sort of production from which you can see the sensuous item straight away".
It also takes people back to the tradition of their grandmothers, changing the all too common scenario from sitting endlessly in front of the computer.
And the trend has not escaped the attention of fashion designers who, from Donna Karan to Giorgio Armani, are promoting it.
Some knitters will pay top price for a Malo knitting kit, a brand of Italian kashmir, at 979 dollars.
Others of more modest means look out for starter kits at affordable prices. Clothing store Urban Outfitters sells such a kit for 18 dollars.
Heh. You're right Smug, it's not gay at all. It's the new yoga!
You like to knit but you're afraid of needles. Man you are such a nancy-boy.
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02-06-2004 11:59 AM
