All the Cool kids are Knitting

Belonging to a knitting group has, against all the the odds, become trendy.

Be cool with wool
French company Wool & the Gang has re-packaged the idea of knitting your own clothes as uber-cool and trendy. The company's DIY knitting sets comprise of yarn, wooden knitting needles, knitting pattern, sewing needle and customisation material. The knitter then has a choice of cotton, wool and alpaca materials, whilst the kits range in proficiency levels from beginner via intermediate to experienced.

The knitting kits vary in price and style, from a Tala tank top for EUR55 (three balls of 100% Peruvian Pima Cotton), Tween Spirit children's jumper at EUR89 (four balls of 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca), to (Mahal poncho at Eur159 ( 14 balls of 100% Peruvian Pima Cotton and 8mm wooden needles). There is also a choice of colour for each set, ranging from three to seven different colours.

The kits have a trendy, minimalist look and are supported by video help, blogs and social networking pages (eg Facebook) where knitters are encouraged to show photos of their final designs.
Knitting communites
Knitting has seen a resurgence of late, spurred on by events such as London's iconic Ritzy cinema offering special film showings for Knitflicks - a social knitting group who watch films whilst they knit (with the lights on), designer Missoni's A/W 09 knitted fashion collection and celebrities such as Madonna, Kate Moss and Julia Roberts revealing that they 'knit to relax'.

The social element of knitting ties in with Mintel's Inspire trend called Horizontal Communities. This trend describes how communities that previously were built on vertical assumptions of where you were born, are giving way to new horizontal associations based on interests, work or hobbies. Such as knitting. Knitting has been made more sociable and acceptable through being able to reach young people through social networking sites and interactive websites, and creating wide ranging groups going across age, demographics and geography. Retailers need to sit up and take notice, especially as the onset of dark winter evenings may see growing interest in this trend.
— September 02, 2009