It's simple and peaceful - or hip and happening. How come punks are picking up the stitches when it comes to knitting? Nadine O'Reganreports
When Martin Gore of Depeche Mode appeared on stage at the Point Theatre last summer, few could take their eyes off his unusual headgear - a black-knitted Mohawk-style hat that tied around the chin and rose high into the air, making Gore look, from the neck up, like a peculiarly gothic hedgehog. Since Gore had been photographed wearing the titfer at almost every stop on the band's Touring the Angel tour, the hat had become part of the Depeche Mode trademark style - and photographers and fans alike were loving the development.
For two fans, in particular, however, Martin Gore's chosen tour ensemble came as an especially welcome surprise. Alyce Benevides, co-founder alongside Jaqueline Milles of the punk-rock knitwear company Knit-Head, had knitted Depeche Mode the three Mohawk hats owned by Martin Gore and stood in line all day to give them to the band at a Tower Records appearance. She had hoped the band might wear her creations, but never thought that it would be on stage at venues around the world. "It was crazy," her partner Jacqueline Milles laughs, as she tells the story. "It was a dream come true."
That gore should have ditched his trademark fetishistic garments in favour of a knitted hat makes a certain kind of sense. Traditional crafts such as knitting, sewing and crocheting are staging a comeback of gargantuan proportions, with celebrities from Julia Roberts to Nina Persson of the Cardigans being spotted toting knitting needles alongside their Blackberry handhelds.
While the knitting revival kicked off several years ago in the US with the increasing popularity of knitting groups like Stitch 'n' Bitch, the phenomenon has, in recent times, begun sweeping across Ireland too. When Irish people aren't flocking to events such as The Knitting and Stitching Show at the RDS, they're adding comments to the traffic-heavy arts and crafts sections of websites such as Boards.ie or attending knitting groups that have begun, like book groups before them, to spring up throughout the country. Arts and craft classes, meanwhile, are becoming more and more densely populated with sewing and knitting enthusiasts of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels.
At this year's Electric Picnic festival, the Body and Soul Village had an area where trainee knitters sat cross-legged on the grass, knitting brightly coloured scarves that would later be donated to the Simon community. Clustered together on the grass, the knitters, one man and five women, assisted by several knitting instructors, looked the very picture of post-feminist, new-age contentment.
Many involved in the industry feel that the move back to more traditional hobbies such as arts and crafts signals a need, in an increasingly complex, technology-orientated society, to return to something simple and peaceful.
"If you can get away for a few hours with your sewing machine, and you're doing nice finishing, it's another world," says Suzanne Marr, principal of the Grafton Academy of Dress Designing in Dublin, which offers evening and diploma courses in fashion design. "There's also more interest in doing things for yourself. It's very satisfying to be able to wear your own design." "The creative process of creating something with your own hands is satisfying," agrees Jaqueline Milles of Knit-Head. "It's freeing in itself, and therefore punk and anti-establishment. We never considered knitting frumpy because we were never interested in making frumpy things. Growing up in the 1980s, we watched MTV and favoured fashion designers like Stephen Sprouse, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano. Knitting for us was just another tool to make cool stuff."
Twenty-year-old UCD architecture student Gillian Brady had similar ideas when she embarked on a Grafton Academy evening course in fashion design: she didn't want to emulate styles already in the shops, she wanted to create something special of her own.
Brady shows me sketches she has made for a skirt she plans to create from curtain fabric. "Coming from an architecture background, I'm interested in the design part of the course more than the craft aspect," she says. What do her friends think of her new hobby? "They've been really interested in it. Two of them did the course at different times as well."
Whatever your personal taste might be, knitting and sewing groups are also a smart way to make new friends and generate a sense of community. When Alisha Hamblen moved to Athy, Co. Kildare from California last January, she noticed that there were no knitting groups in her area, and so, as a former happy member of a Californian knitting group called The Knit Wits, she recently decided to set one up. "It's a great way of getting to meet people in your area and share tips and ideas with fellow knitters and crocheters," Hamblen explains.
"So far, the response has been extremely positive. Everyone seems very excited about it." In order to draw some attention to her new knitting group, Hamblen, in common with many other knitting fans, posted details about her plans on the arts and crafts section of Boards.ie. Ironically, it seems as though the technology that is driving people to retreat to more traditional pursuits such as knitting is also the very thing that enables them to find people of like minds.
"There's a very vibrant community," explains Cheryl Marling, the founder of OlannBán, a popular Irish site devoted to connecting knitters around the country. "Many knitters have their own blogs. People who are knitters are sharing their information."
Those posting on such websites and attending arts and crafts groups are predominantly women, however. Although the feminist movement and the development of an increasingly equal society in many countries has probably done much to help women feel comfortable returning to more traditional hobbies, it doesn't appear to have convinced the male of the species to pick up a set of sticks.
"We'd like men to come to the classes," says Suzanne Marr. "But at the moment some men do it, but it would be a small ratio, about 15 to one." What has improved, however, is the range of patterns and wools available to the new arts and crafts generation. Shops such as This is Knit, in Blackrock, Co Dublin, carry a variety of brands and pattern books, while Craftspun Yarns in Rathmore, Co Kildare sells its own homespun brand. While some of the sewing patterns are still only available in too-small sizes - "people who are size 16 are going to find it difficult," notes Marr - there's a lot more out there for the person who wants to make something unusual. "A lot of the patterns are very modern," says Alisha Hamblen. "There are a lot of new wools and fuzzy yarns from Berroco, Patons and Lion Brand."
"The colours are vibrant," adds Cheryl Marling. "And I think the patterns are becoming much more creative." In Benevides' and Milles' recently published knitting book, Pretty in Punk, they showcase 25 of their own original and brilliantly odd designs, including the Vamp scarf, the Goth Girl jumper, the Ready Steady Go miniskirt, Feel the Pain wrist cuffs and, of course, their trademark Mohawk hat. Milles and Benevides deliberately avoided putting anything too difficult into the book because - as intermediate knitters themselves - they were tired of buying books with patterns too hard to use.
"Sometimes we'd find one or two things in a book that would be of interest to us," says Milles. "But for the most part it would be either too difficult for us to make or something we wouldn't wear ourselves. So that's what we kept in mind when we came up with the designs for the book - it had to be really fun and wearable. You'd have to want to make every one of these." And when their fans have knitted everything there is to knit, Benevides and Milles have more plans afoot. "We're working on our second knitting book," Milles says, "that will feature hip items for babies."
The next generation of knitters, it's fair to say, are going to be sharply dressed.
Read one, chat one
Online patterns Knitters on a budget will appreciate the free patterns available from www.knitty.com and www.magknits.com. The Knitty magazine is published four times a year, while Magknit, one of the most popular resources for free knitting patterns online, publishes monthly.
Chat Groups There has never been a better time to get involved in chatting online about knitting. For Irish knitting enthusiasts, the best resources to investigate include www.olannban.net, a site which highlights knitting groups and retailers around Ireland and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stitchnbitchie, a chat forum for Irish knitters. Dublin-based knitters should also check out www.dublinknitters.wordpress.com. Another website worth investigating is www.getcrafty.com, where arts and crafts fans can share tips and read blogs about their favourite areas of the arts and crafts.
Books and Magazines Described as "the essential guide to knitting for chicks with sticks", Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook (Workman Publishing Co) by Debbie Stoller contains instructions for the trainee knitter and 40 knitting patterns contributed by knitting fans from around the world.
Pretty in Punk (Chronicle Books), by Alyce Benevides and Jaqueline Milles, takes a punk-rock approach to knitting patterns. On the magazine front, meanwhile, craft media company Interweave Press publishes 14 subscription magazines, including Beadwork, Jewelry Artist, Beads, Stringing and Creative Jewelry.
For further details, see www.interweave.com
