It doesn't get much better than this - relatives and good friends Jude Shaughnessy, Greer Kobik and Deborah Rimkunas sharing their knitting and a glass of wine.
By Suzanne Washburn
Photography by Hubert Schriebl
The young and hip take to an antique art
Thanks to a cadre of new, youthful practitioners, a homey craft long linked to grandmothers has turned into today’s hottest hobby. Over just the past half-decade, knitting has boomed all over the United States, and not least in Vermont where there are not only knitters, but the creatures whose coats are a prime source of the craft’s medium.
According to surveys by the Craft Yarn Council of America, between 2002 and 2004, there was a 150% increase in women knitters age 25-34. At present this energetic and stylish subgroup amounts to fully one-third of the 53 million Americans who have these needle skills. At the same time the 18-and-under group doubled. Knitters surveyed were busy with, on average, 17 projects a year. Not surprisingly, the newest National Needle Arts Association analysis toted up yarn wholesalers’ gross sales at a bulky $440 million. (One rather regrettable offshoot of the boom in knitting is the reported fallout in another textile craft. In different states, a number of shops that catered to quilters have shuttered as the competing craft soared.)
Knitting can be—but isn’t necessarily—a solitary pursuit. From Maine to California get-togethers range from weekly “open knitting sessions” (“Knit Ins” or “Knit Outs”) at shops to “Stitch ’N Pitch” nights at baseball stadiums (sixteen major league teams have featured these!). Knitters can also spend a weekend blending Buddhist meditation with the pursuit of their craft....
