Many have had to get creative during the pandemic for our minds and sanity. Some have taken up new hobbies – and one that has exploded in popularity is knitting.
And so we were literally turning it over, trying to figure out where they sewed the sleeves, and then the two of us. So it’s acrylic, they all have their plans, Zach Anderson, I do Stephen West’s melting moral shawl get a simple little fisherman hat and they all have their reasons for me. It’s a creative outlet. Excellent social outlet. I mean, you know, you come into a, like a community of people who are all excited, you know what they’re working on and what they’re doing. I love all the colors I can play with and the amount of individuality I can put into my, my projects and like every project they all had a starting point. I actually started knitting when I was about six, my mom was a knitter and I watched her and she showed me how and so that’s kind of where I started, I taught myself when I was trying to quit smoking And it was a way for me to keep my hands busy. Did it work and it worked, I haven’t smoked for 20 years now it’s an art form that can be healthy and healing. When my mother passed away, I inherited all of her stuff through the use of YouTube. I watched a bunch of videos about how Jay knitting got advanced, creating patterns and selling his work to people all over the country. Does this sound like a connection with your mother? It does. I mean, I still have some of her needles and for a lot of fiber arts is associated with mothers and grandmothers, but when I was, you know, 78, 10 and going in a yarn store and they normally would, do you have a list i know of your mom to pick up what she needs. Bill is advanced to. He is currently creating a freehand sweater without any seams. Then all of a sudden they started taking me a little more seriously. Yeah, this guy is legit. Yeah. Yeah. He’s not just there to pick up women or whatever they thought he was there to do. But he says the patterns are changing. The men are all part of the Twin Cities Men’s Knitting Club which has over 60 members. It’s really nice to find other guys who are really, you know, excited about creating yarns and textiles and the different things you can do with them and working with colors and they’re good at it. And yes, while the pandemic prompted many to give it a shot this morning, I got a little cozy, just like a gold-medal Olympian knitting between dives. So here we’ve definitely seen an upsurge in interest and men getting into knitting because of Tom Daley breaking that stigma. Saying that is really something only a woman would love to do. It’s actually very therapeutic. And it turns out it’s not just about the lines they weave like the center, it’s about the circles they make, but it’s like you’re bringing people together to, well, you know, you create fiber, but you also create the relationships and friendships of the group you went to.