Knitting as a Way to Unwind
Think knitting is just for aging grannies making baggy sweaters and winter mittens? Think again. The centuries-old craft has, over the last few years, found a new audience of 20-and 30-somethings who are looking for simplicity in all things and new forms of relaxation. The so-called new yoga, knitting has become the nerve-soothing activity of choice for idling actresses, supermodels, stressed-out mothers and over-scheduled students. Now the craft will have its official Southern California coming out on Sunday at the Knit-Out and Crochet Too in Santa Monica.
The Knit-Out will offer free lessons, advice on knitting or crocheting problems and displays of the latest knit fashions, yarns, patterns and accessories. The event follows the lead of New York City, host of the first Knit-Out in 1998, which drew 400 people. Last year, about 10,000 participated. This year’s New York event was canceled in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The surge of interest in knitting has spawned Knit-Out events this month at 23 other cities, from Washington, D.C., to Seattle.
The recent resurgence of knitting can be attributed to the introduction of rich fashion yarns, easily knit sophisticated sweaters and a chance to buck the trend of mass-produced clothing--a la Gap or Banana Republic--for one-of-a-kind “wearable art.”
“Everything is buy and throw away [now],” says 41-year-old Suss Cousins, owner of Suss Design, a trendy knitwear boutique on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. “Knitting is something you learn for life.” For the last two years, her shop has offered knitting classes that fill up quickly with an eclectic mix of young professional women, hipsters, stay-at-home mothers and Orthodox Jewish women from the neighborhood.
Like these women, youthful knitters have taken up the craft in droves. According to Research Inc., a marketing research firm in Atlanta, there has been a 100% increase in knitters younger than 35 since 1998--from an estimated 2 million to 4 million in 2000. An estimated 38 million women in the U.S. know how to knit or crochet.
Actresses such as Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rose McGowan have helped remove the old-lady stigma of knitting. The entertainment crowd--from stagehands and makeup artists to supermodels such as Kirsty Hume, who knits often at Suss Design--took up the craft as a way to make downtime more productive on photography, film and television sets.
“You can only read so many magazines on the set,” says actress Cean Okada, 47, of the five hours a day she estimates she spent knitting a sky-blue sweater while on the set of “Joe Somebody,” a Tim Allen film to be released around Christmas. Plus, she says, knitting is an instant conversation starter. “It binds you to other people,” says Okada, who will play one of Allen’s co-workers in the film. “It instantly opens up a door to other people on the set that might not have been opened before.”
Other women are also picking up the craft as a way to unwind after a long day or as a way to connect with others in knitting groups or classes. At Suss Design, women gather each Tuesday evening and Saturday morning with their knitting bags filled with unfinished projects. Suss bounces back and forth from one sofa to the next, helping the women create everything from traditional baby blankets to items you know Granny never made: cell-phone pouches, bottled-water carriers and “chunky purses,” bags made with a thick, heavy yarn.
The store is stocked with cotton yarn at $4 a skein up through rich chenille, Angora, mohair and fine Italian wools, even a hand-painted blend of silk and wool for $145 a skein. Pop music and reggae are piped through the boutique as the women work using bamboo knitting needles while they snack on veggie chips, sip wine and talk about everything from boyfriends and diets to their latest career move.
“I get into a zone doing this,” says 30-year-old Leah Gross, of Beverly Hills, who has recently taken up knitting since leaving her job as a public relations executive in search of something more fulfilling. “It just absorbs your mind,” she says. “It keeps you focused.”
It’s that zone that can turn knitting from a passing hobby to a lifelong passion. Many knitters, in fact, describe the craft as downright addictive. “I was up knitting in the bathroom in the middle of the night,” says 35-year-old Daniela Acitelli, who’s been taking lessons at Suss Design for about four weeks and hopes to make a sweater by the end of October.
Other knitters have been known to stop by Edith Eig’s Studio City shop, La Knitterie Parisienne, for a quick fix before job interviews or auditions. “It’s just like someone who would go to a bar to unwind,” says Eig, 57, “but it’s so much healthier.” Occasionally, Eig says, knitters have even missed doctor appointments having been lulled into the rhythmic movements the craft provides. In fact, the repetitive movements of knitting can produce a relaxation response, slowing heart rate and blood pressure, according to 38-year-old Glendale-based writer Bernadette Murphy, who has researched knitting for her book “Zen and the Art of Knitting,” which will be released in fall 2002.
“[Knitting] slows us down and makes us stop and breathe and think about life in a different way,” she says. A knitter for almost 20 years, Murphy says her book will include essays on knitting as meditation, the restorative powers of knitting for those dealing with catastrophic illness, knitting as a conduit to unblock creative lulls and even knitting as prayer. “It’s the idea of imbuing each stitch of a garment for someone as kind of like a prayer,” says Murphy. “It’s like [the receiver] would be wrapped in my thoughts and my love for them in a sacred garment.”
