Web spins a compelling yarn

KNITTING:The web has breathed new life into an old craft by allowing knitters to hook up, and get their home-spun products out to market, writes CATHY O'CLERY

THANKS IN PART TO the downturn, knitting has seen a steady renewed interest in the past few years and the craft is now developing into amazing and highly creative new art forms.

Ironically, it is new technology that has done the most to revive the old craft. Community websites and bloggers are providing readily available international forums of like-minded knitters. Chief among them is Ravelry.com, which has nearly two million subscribers worldwide. In Ireland, there are 66 regional groups listed, with a healthy collective membership of about 6,717. For a few years now another movement, Stitch’n’Bitch, has encouraged people to get together to knit, natter and swap ideas rather than learn formally through lessons.

In Waterford, for example, you could join the Vino and Stitch group, which meets weekly to “beat the recession with a plain, a pearl and a smile”, and no doubt the odd glass of wine. Or in Portlaoise, the Wednesday Night Hookers get together for some crochet and, judging by their name, a bit of a laugh.

Home knitting has also been encouraged by a spate of cutting-edge craft magazines such as Selvedge, favoured by trendsetters in the textile industry, or the charming and more accessible Mollie Makes, launched in Britain in 2011, aimed at hip crafty 20-somethings. Recently featured in Mollie Makes was the work of Irish crochet worker Carmen Heffernan, who in 2008 made the jump from home knitting to selling online through the craft website etsy.com. Etsy encourages home crafters to open their own on-line shop and has proved to be phenomenally successful, offering commercial openings to people who would never think of approaching a retailer.

Heffernan’s work is characteristic of the more popular form of new knitting – pretty, appealing and very colourful – and for her it has been a recession-beating opportunity. “I have always painted and created while bringing up my family but my first love has always been textiles – knitting and crocheting. My grandmother, and particularly my mother and aunts, were all wonderful seamstresses and did beautiful knitting and crochet work. I worked from home for Castit for the past 10 years as a sign painter, but like everything else, work is slow,” she says.

Knitting is no longer a feminine domain, and men aren’t shy to brag about it, as you will find out on the charming menwhoknit.com. Irish-born designer Tim Ryan, who learnt to knit from his granny, has made a huge impact on the London fashion scene and it is in men’s knitwear where the real progressive stuff is being done. London company Sibling, a co-operation between three designers – Joe Bates, Sid Bryan and Cozette McCreery – aims to “give knitwear for men a good old-fashioned shake with cartoon pows of colour and bams of humour”. And that they do, as evidenced by their extraordinary Monster Knit collection shows. You can’t help but laugh at their contemporary twist on the three-piece ensemble – a jumper, pants and mohawk balaclava (left). It is beautifully crafted and eerily sinister. Museums are already collecting their work.

Sibling represents a high-end version of what is happening all over the knitting world. Today’s New Knitting fraternity is from a YouTube generation who knit to get hits, creating ingenious and often hilarious pieces and posting them online. Take something not associated with soft and cuddly, and then knit it: a Viking helmet and ginger beard all in one; a beanie knitted to look like brains; a jar of gherkins; or a packet of biscuits.

There are new-generation knitters who work with giant needles. The chief protagonist of monumental knitting is Rachel John (racheljohn.co.uk), who not only works on a large scale using multi-ply wool but, along with her daughter Carmen, she makes the giant wooden needles – some several metres long – to do so. Ridiculous it may sound but some beautiful contemporary soft furniture pieces, such as the work of Dutch textile artist Christien Meindertsma or Irish-born Claire-Anne O’Brien, have been created using this method.

Far away from granny’s fireside is an underworld of knitting that most of us aren’t even aware of, full of twilight taggers and rouge knitters.

Guerrilla and graffiti knitting started a few years ago as a light-hearted reaction to cheap mass production in the textile industry and in celebration of knitting’s almost forgotten skills. A softer and less damaging street art than standard graffiti, the modus operandi of guerrilla knitters is to sneak into a neighbourhood and “yarn-bomb” it by covering something in knitwear, contrasting the cold urban landscape with warm snugly woollens. It’s silly with a hint of seriousness – Banksy meets Kirstie Allsopp.

Let’s face it, the world could do with some more knitters to bring us cheer and warmth.

Click to knit

Menwhoknit.com A forum to encourage the craft among men

Ravelry.com The most comprehensive knitting website, full of useful information, blogging, great patterns and ideas. Every member is encouraged to set up their own page and post their latest knits

Stitchnbitch.com An international forum encouraging knitting groups

Thisisknits.ie Mother and daughter Jacqui and Lisa Sisk have gone from a market stall at Blackrock Market in 2006 to a large and buzzing establishment on the first floor of Powerscourt Townhouse, where they sell the latest knitting products and hold regular knitting classes. 01-6709981

Yarnclasses.com A good list of local knitting groups in Ireland

Yarnbomb.com A light-hearted forum for anyone interested in yarn bombing