A Yen for Yarn The number of women under age 45 who knit has doubled recently. One reason – the lure of luxuriant, luscious and loud yarns

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Walking through a yarn shop is enough to make even the clumsiest person consider knitting. In baskets and bins, in skeins and in hanks, yards and yards of silk and wool and mohair beg to be touched. Some have a lustrous sheen. Others are fluffy and light. Still others are rough and chunky. And the colors – pearl, cotton-candy pink, ombre-dyed greens, hot pink, periwinkle, silver – cover the entire spectrum of the rainbow, and then some.

But yarn isn’t the only reason why the number of women under 45 who knit has doubled in recent years.

Mary Colucci, executive director of the Craft Yarn Council of America, attributes the resurgence in knitting’s popularity to several factors: a more varied yarn selection, the emergence of chunky handknitted sweaters on the fashion runways, and a higher profile in the media. Celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz sing the praises of knitting in print and TV interviews. Even “A Beautiful Mind” hunk Russell Crowe has been known to knit on the set.

“I think it particularly impressed younger women,” Colucci said by phone from Manhattan. “Once they started, it was like getting hooked. I think they discovered what knitters have always known. It’s so incredibly relaxing.”

There’s a reason why knitting has been called “the new yoga” – there’s something soothing about the repetition of stitches – whether you’re watching TV, waiting at the doctor’s office, or just sitting on the couch with a project and a cup of coffee. But you don’t have to just curl up and purl by yourself. In the Bangor area alone, there are several “stitch and bitch” groups, where women come together to eat, drink, knit and chat.

“The social aspect of this is a big reason why people are staying with it, because they’re getting together with friends to do it,” Colucci said.

If you don’t have any friends who knit, you can either teach them how, take a class or attend a retreat, where you’ll find dozens of like-minded stitchers – check your local yarn shop or the Web for listings.

You can also get together to knit for a good cause. Kathy Harmon of Cityside Yarn Co. in Bangor says hats are always needed for the Chemo Cap project and Families and Children Together needs mittens for teens and young adults. Most yarn shops have information on charity knitting, and often provide free patterns for the projects.

On the national level, Colucci mentioned the Warm Up America! project, which provides afghans to homeless shelters. Rather than knit a whole blanket, the project asks people to contribute 7-by-9-inch sections. That’s not much bigger than the suggested gauge swatch for most patterns, so why not donate it? (For information, visit www.warmupamerica.com).

But let’s say you don’t even know how to knit a gauge swatch. That’s OK. Learning to knit is as easy as picking up a book, going online, heading to your local yarn shop for a quick tutorial, or finding an experienced knitter to guide you.

There is also a proliferation of knitting Web sites and chat rooms, many of which offer free patterns and great advice.

Pam Allen of Camden, the editor of Interweave Knits magazine and author of “Knitting for Dummies,” started knitting in earnest as a teenager. When she ran into a problem with her first major project, she called a friend’s mother, who walked her through the stitches.

“Find someone who knows how to knit better than you,” Allen said. “Study your stitches. Understand the structure of what a stitch is so you can fix a mistake.”

Allen is a purist. She likes classic yarns that show off the stitches, rather than the yarn itself. But she said the popularity of novelty yarns has lured in a new generation of knitters because they require minimum effort for maximum impact.

“The design is yarn-driven,” Allen said. “Novelty yarns are a way that someone can knit something relatively quick and relatively simple and have something intriguing.”

Though she doesn’t care for novelty yarns, Allen said that if they get people started, great. If they continue knitting and branch out to more difficult items, so much the better.

“If you can get people to knit, they find that they enjoy it,” Allen said.

But they enjoy it for different reasons. Some love the social aspect. Allen prefers solitude. Others knit because they want to explore fashion and shaping. Some want to try contemporary design, while others want to delve into the history of knitting and keep traditional patterns alive.

Still others, such as Cushing sculptor Katharine Cobey, use the structure of knitting to explore artistic and social issues.

“There is no stereotypical knitter at all, and they come at it for so many different reasons,” Allen said. “It’s just all kinds of different things. It’s just a rich craft to learn.”

Kristen Andresen is a Style Desk writer. She can be reached at kandresen@bangordailynews.net.

Resources

Following is a selection of knitting resources. This is by no means a comprehensive list.

Knitting Web sites:

www.knittersreview.com

www.learntoknit.com

www.knitty.com

www.knitrowan.com

Maine knitting shops online:

www.halcyonyarn.com

www.stitching.com/stitcherysquare

www.uniqueone.com

Knitting books:

“Knitting for Dummies” by Pam Allen

“The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Simple Knits” by Jordana Jacobs and Julie Carles

“Knitting Pretty” by Kris Percival

“The Knitting Experience” series by Sally Melville

Knitting magazines:

Interweave Knits

Vogue Knitting

Family Circle Easy Knitting

Rowan Knitting