Staying Fit
Julia Roberts does it on set. David Arquette learned from his grandmother. Kate Middleton gave it a go while pregnant.
Need a hint? It’s knitting.
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“To get started, all you need is yarn and a pair of knitting needles,” says Libby Butler-Gluck a public relations and marketing consultant in the craft industry. “It is that easy.”
And it’s popular again, too. “There has been another boost in knitting in the last couple years, with the ability to share and document work on social media platforms, particularly Instagram,” says Jenny Bessonette, executive director of the Craft Yarn Council. “The rise of the ‘maker movement’ on social media has also led to an increased interest in knitting and crocheting and yarn crafts in general.”
Getting started
The Craft Yarn Council website is a great resource, with learn-to-knit videos, instructions about basic knitting and crocheting stitches, tutorials on how to “increase” and “decrease” stitches, and more.
“Our research shows that the most common reasons for not participating in the craft are lack of knowledge on how to get started [32 percent] and the perception that knitting or crocheting is difficult to learn [28 percent],” Bessonette says.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The first step is to get a lesson. Find a local yarn store (almost every town has at least one) and ask about beginner classes. Like any skill, all it takes is practice.
“Everyone learns differently and at a different pace,” says Debbie Siegel, an independent yarn dyer based in Fuquay-Varina, N.C. “Some can learn from reading a book, watching a video, [while others] need to be sitting quietly next to someone so they can be shown the movements. Until a person starts to learn, they will not know which method is best.”