I’m half expecting to see knitters in the gym. And if anyone ever did take wool and needles in there, it’d be the people who manage to listen to ipods and read books at the same time, all whilst running full pelt up hill on a treadmill without even turning pink. That’s not normal! But back to knitting…
The activity of hand-knitting has gone into and out of fashion many times and at present it is enjoying a revival. In today’s society it can be used to make a statement about individuality as well as enhancing your social life. I find this hobby intriguing; it looked therapeutic almost, with the hands busy without too much concentration needed.
At secondary school one of my teachers even set up a ‘naughty knitting club’. This was a kind of detention for miss-behaving boys who were kept inside a classroom at dinner time and learned to knit.
What a great idea. I took this to Google and discovered lots more knitting societies and clubs, in particular one called ‘stitch and Bitch’; a London based knitting group. This is an entirely non-profit organization who has taught hundreds of people to knit. They meet weekly in public places all over central London. I imagine it to be like a smokers club in terms of socializing, where although you only have that one thing in common and people often label you, the activity of doing it glues you together, making it ok for you to share the same space and talk to one another. Except knitting doesn’t kill you so that’s quite cool.
It was also interesting to find out that in Canada and the U.S. knitting has also become very popular in snowboarding circles, with the introduction of knitting parties. There’s going to be needles everywhere!
Anyway, if you’re a bit of a fidget I’d say why not give it a go and get knitting.
