WWW: The Muggles Get it Wrong; Indie Untangled; Knitting for the War Effort

There’s been a rash of articles (well, ok, two)  in the mainstream press of late, about the recent “resurgence” of knitting.  It’s always nice to see knitting talked about, but both of these pieces landed badly.

The Guardian in the UK thinks that we might like knitting because the famous people do it. Also, apparently, we do it to fill time.

Toronto’s Globe and Mail tells us that despite its “fusty” image, knitting has managed to “get its groove back”.  

Once again, we see mention of the “granny” stereotypes, our motivations misunderstood, and the work of our hands tragically undervalued.

Feisty knitter Kay Gardiner, (lawyer, author, mother and all-around smart person) decided that we should show the world what else we do. She kicked off the “ANDknitting” hashtag. The idea was to educate the Guardian and the world at large about the wide range of people who knit, and what else we do to “fill our time”. Much wonderful stuff ensued – I know I learned an awful lot about the varied and smart and interesting people in our knitting community.

Louise on the “KnitBritish” blog wrote a wonderful piece about the articles, about the ANDknitting hashtag, and the frustrations we feel in response to these ongoing use of stereotypes in the press.

We’re intrigued by the launch of Indie Untangled. This is a website dedicated to helping crafters discover hand-dyed yarn and fiber. It’s a combination of marketplace and information resource, allowing indie dyers to provide information about their yarns and fibers and where to find them. Dyers will post on the website when they are updating their stores, and with news about their products, and the Indie Untangled team will be writing a newsletter and blog post about products they’ve discovered and news and goings-on in the indie yarn world.

Helping however they could.

Although the heading of this blog post worried me (“Current crafts craze”? Oh no, here we go again…) I enjoyed this overview of the role knitting played in World War 1.

You don’t need to go to school to knit this… (booo!)

As part of the “Follow the Herring” program at Customs House, a group in Hastings UK has set up a series of workshops on maritime-themed knitting. The larger program is celebrating and explored maritime and social history, and is touring the east coast of the UK. The workshops, on everything from knitting your own fish & chip shop, to perhaps more practical gansey knitting, will be held at Stade Hall in Hastings through May and June. And even if you can’t participate in the workshops, you might enjoy knitting yourself this rather wonderful herring.