Photo: starshaped / Flickr

Knitting has been in for almost a decade now and, if anything, it’s getting bigger. Guardian writer Jacques Peretti called it ‘the biggest thing since sliced bootlegs’ in 2002 and now, nine years later, Google says that knitting-related searches on the web are at an all-time high. And knitting is still making the news, too, with Jenifer Anniston being the latest in quite a long line of celebrities to take up the craft.

Everyone’s in

The media played a big role in giving knitting its new cool factor, with paparazzi snaps of celebrities like Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Winona Ryder and Cameron Diaz making their way into tabloids in the early noughties. Since then TV presenter Kirstie Allsop did a segment on knitting on her crafts show on Channel 4, glossy magazines have started publishing features on knitting, and Penguin has printed its first book about the craft since the 50s.

Knitting meets the web

Lauren O’Farrell, who founded London knitting group Stitch London, says that a new social network aimed solely at knitters called Raverly has come out of beta phase. Facebook has helped raise knitting’s profile, too. ‘Every knitting shop, group and organisation I know is on Facebook now,’ she says.

Anj Medhurst, of online wool shop Meadow Yarn, says that ‘The whole blog/online craft scene is incredibly important to our sort of business at the moment. We are really able to feed off the links between blogs, community sites like Ravelry, Facebook and Twitter, and make them all part of our customer service ethic. Offers, news and sales can all be spontaneously disseminated, which adds to the community feel.’

Designer trends

Emma Irving of Coats Crafts says that ‘You just have to look at the catwalk to see that major designers like Vivienne Westwood and Christopher Kane are putting knitwear, especially crochet, back into their main collections.’

As much as the media and the internet have done to give knitting its new status, high fashion’s nod to the craft certainly hasn’t hurt.

Tags: hobbies, knitting