news clipped by TrueBlueDem on August 3, 2005 - 5:21am
The Seattle Times
Stitch 'N Pitch Night made its debut at the Seattle Mariners game
Some skepticism preceded Stitch 'N Pitch, too. Kevin Martinez, the team's vice president of marketing, used to rib women colleagues in the M's office who'd knit during their lunch breaks. But then, in a moment of promotional enlightenment, he thought, Hey!
He figured on selling maybe 200 tickets for a knitting event. But more than a week before the game, ticket sales had topped 1,200, prompted, in part, by avid knitters who heard about the event at local yarn shops '” and who blog.
One blog entry on Mossy Cottage Knits read: "Take Me (and My Yarn and My Needles and My Pattern and My Friends) Out to the Ballgame." Immediately, feedback poured in to the blog: What a freaking kickass idea.
Indeed, knitting is wildly popular. According to the Craft Yarn Council of America, one in three women knows how to knit or crochet. The fastest-growing demographic of knitters? Thirtysomethings.
In Seattle, at least five new yarn shops have opened in the past five years. At area Pacific Fabrics & Crafts stores, skeins of yarn have elbowed out quilting materials for shelf space.
The appeal of knitting, according to its practitioners, is that it's portable, creative, social and grounding.
Comment by bayprairie posted August 3, 2005 - 5:45am
i love some of those photos. i have a good friend who knits and my mom does that and crochets too. i especially like the little girl sitting next to her mother. i'm a super big baseball fan too, the pace of the game would lend itself to knitting. easy to look away, easy to just simply listen.
of course if you're along the first base side you better keep your eyes open! haha
Comment by Ann Bartow posted August 3, 2005 - 8:45am
Here is another excerpt from the article:
****************************** .... "Now that we've gained so much ground, knitting, something so traditional, isn't seen as anti-feminist," says Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, known on the Internet as The Yarn Harlot.
And it's fiendishly addictive. Knitters, aka "fiber artists" or "purly girls" or "chicks with sticks," knit in bed, on the beach, on airplanes and at the occasional restaurant table.
Before last night, knitters in far fewer numbers had already found their way into Safeco's stands.
"Baseball doesn't require 100 percent attention. There are between innings, between pitchers, between batters," said Beryl Hiatt, a devotee of both knitting and baseball.
"You can be with your guy and they're content to watch the game. And then he doesn't resent all the time and money you spend on knitting."
The festivities began before the first pitch was ever thrown. (The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by two knitters who threw out balls of yarn. Of course!)
On Lookout Landing, local yarn shops set up booths, handing out event pennants and selling patterns for such things as a "Home Team Felted Hat" and a "7th Inning Scarf."
Mothers who have honed their knitting at their children's sporting events came with their kids last night. Husbands accompanied wives. Women tagged along with girlfriends.
"I brought some socks, so I might get a lot done. But then again, we may just laugh and chat and have a good time," said Patricia Curtis of Issaquah, enjoying her first Major League game. ....
***************************************************
Was knitting ever seen as "anti-feminist"? And this quote kind of set my teeth on edge: "You can be with your guy and they're content to watch the game. And then he doesn't resent all the time and money you spend on knitting."
Maybe I'm just bitter because when you live in South Carolina, ten months out of the year it is so hot that you never, ever want to even touch wool if you can avoid it :>)
Comment by TrueBlueDem posted August 3, 2005 - 2:10pm
Knitting "skipped" a generation in the 70's and 80's... it was seen as "traditional" and conservative. That is what this new "craze" is about that it has redefined knitting not in terms of the little house wife knitting booties but as a "feminist" thang...
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