That clicking sound you might be hearing in the lecture hall or movie theater isn’t a typewriter or the snapping of someone’s fingers. It’s the sound of a trend sweeping Kent State and the rest of the nation.
River Colors Studio in Lakewood provides practically every color yarn a knitter could want.
That’s right. Knitting — as well as other forms of needlework such as crocheting and cross-stitching — is making a comeback in a big way. The old-fashioned trend has spawned books and knitting groups and has inspired students around campus to knit their own winter hats, scarves and gloves. Even guys are getting in on the action in numbers not seen in decades.
Catherine Cartwright-Jones, who has taught knitting classes in Kent State’s School of Fashion Design and Merchandising since 1990, says the crafty craze’s newfound appeal was bound to happen.
There seem to be 20-year cycles in knitting’s popularity, she says. “There was a great deal of interest in the late ’70s, early ’80s and that was an extension of being a good, back-to-earth hippie. But then during the late ’80s and early ’90s, there was a ‘why on earth would anyone bother’ (mentality). To be honest, I was inclined to agree with them.”
Cartwright-Jones raises a valid point. Why choose knitting when there’s blogging, instant messaging and Facebooking to be done? Carla Scott, executive editor of Vogue Knitting, blames the terrorists.
“Some people will say that after Sept. 11, people wanted to stay home and go back to doing things that were completely unrelated,” Scott says. “They wanted to go back to their roots. Plus, people see Julia Roberts and famous musicians knitting as well.” On top of celebrities picking up the needles, many fashion designers are experimenting with knitting. “It just all of a sudden blossomed into a very cool thing to do.”
Carol Volpe, a senior fashion design major, works on the knitting machine during Catherine Cartwright-Jones' class.
Abby Walton, a senior fashion merchandising major enrolled in Cartwright-Jones’ knitting class, says she knew knitting was catching on when the trend’s three most popular words came out of her conservative mother’s mouth.
“The first time I ever heard my mom cuss was when I heard her talking about the book Stitch ‘N Bitch,” Walton says with a laugh. The book her mother referred to spawned knitting clubs of the same name all across the country, including ones in Cleveland, Akron and Canton. The books are authored by Bust magazine editor Debbie Stoller, who writes in 2003’s Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook that the percentage of women under 45 who knit or crochet has doubled since 1996.
But it’s not only women who are getting into the craft. Senior integrated mathematics major Mark Bartholet learned how to crochet this fall after attending a workshop put on by his residence assistant. “Forty or so people showed,” Bartholet says of the Beall Hall crochet seminar. “It was crazy. I thought I was gonna be the only guy, but it was like half guys, half girls. Pretty sweet.”
Shannon Okey of Cleveland spins yarn when she's not working on her book or attending a Stitch 'N Bitch meeting.
And there are plenty of other male knitters and crocheters where Bartholet came from. Shannon Okey, the Cleveland-based author of the forthcoming Knitgrrl — a knitting guide geared toward knitters aged 12 to 17 — can’t see what the big deal is about men wanting to try to their hand at a so-called “women’s” activity. “Historically, men were the knitters,” Okey says. “Men were the spinners and the knitters, especially in places like Ireland with a strong knitting tradition. Only in the last century did it really become ‘women’s work.’ So I think we’re just getting a sort of backswing toward evening things out.”
Bartholet has experienced minor ridicule, at worst, as a male crochet artist. “People joke with me every once in a while about it,” he says. “I thought I’d get made fun of a lot more than I do. And the thing is, it actually picks up girls. They’re like, ‘What were you doing last night?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I sat in my room and crocheted.’ They’re like, ‘You know how to crochet?!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah!’ ‘Well, I knit. You wanna teach me how to crochet?’ That’s happened at least four or five times, which is pretty good for me.”
The Burr is produced by students at Kent State University twice per academic year.No part of The Burr may be reprinted without permission.