Do you have knitting friends, or is your knitting a kind of a friend?
Let's talk about knitting friendships
I’d like to take you on a little trip with me this morning.
It was 2014 and I’d been knitting seriously for only a few years. I was visiting a friend in New Jersey, and it just so happened that the weekend I had chosen to visit her was the same weekend as the New York Sheep & Wool festival.
She also knit, although not as seriously as I did, but knitting was something we had in common, and being a thoughtful hostess, she suggested we might enjoy a one-day bus trip to the festival that was being organized by her local yarn shop.
I agreed, and we left very (very) early that morning and traveled from New Jersey to Rhinebeck, New York (and back).
It was my first time on a bus full of knitters.
“There are few things as fulfilling as that sense of being seen and understood.”
—David Brooks, How To Know A Person
Everyone was chatting about what they were working on, what they wanted to see at the festival, which vendors they had saved all year to shop with. I could not believe how beautifully and seamlessly we all shared our passion for knitting.
We talked about replenishing our stashes. We laughed about dropped stitches when the bus made turns. Long-time festival goers counseled that traffic would be bad, but, don’t worry, we’ll be there soon. My social anxiety melted away as I felt comfortable and comforted in the presence of people who loved the things I loved.
This one-day bus trip started an era of six years of annual trips to Rhinebeck where I made new friends, hugged and connected with Internet friends, and filled my social knitting bucket—that spot inside that longs to connect with other knitters about our shared love of knitting and to geek out, together, over patterns and color and fiber content.
The Rhinebeck experience has changed a lot over the years, and 2014 feels like a lifetime ago.
But that one moment remains: where I realized that knitting itself had become a friend and companion to me.
Whether you are a solitary knitter, a knitter who relishes their knit group experiences, or a knitter who loves to connect with others at festivals or shows, knitting itself can be a friend.
Knitting can be a companion during long nights of the soul—those times of illness or sadness or wintering, whether it’s our own or someone else’s.
Knitting can be a joyful friend, who brings fresh perspectives or new excitement with its color or texture or stitch patterns.
If we want it to, knitting can connect us to generations who came before and to the ones that will come after us. It can also be something that we do for just for ourselves.
Knitting is now central to my life. Not only it is my livelihood, but it has remained my hobby and passion, something that doesn’t always happen when people turn a passion into a business.
I sit with this friend, my knitting, every evening.
I have friends who also knit, and I have “knitting friends,” where we connect deeply around our shared love of this craft.
I am not yet a crocheter, weaver, or very good spinner, but I have friends who do all these things with yarn and fiber and more.
The idea of friendship—full, inclusive, intersectional, soothing, and joyful friendship—is important to me. I want everyone to have it, and to have a place where they can be just a little bit more themselves.
I hope this spot, here, my Substack newsletter, will be your knitting friend, too.
In my knitting studio
Test call coming soon: I am working up a new sample of my Fiber Friends cowl design, pictured above. I originally designed this cowl around the idea of knitting friendships and will soon be looking for a few test knitters. Test knitters get yarn provided, and I will be sending out first dibs to paid newsletter subscribers, then later to the full newsletter list. Stay tuned.
Summer yarns are in my shop right now. Many are ready-to-ship, and you can preorder the most popular colorways for the next two weeks only. You absolutely, positively still have time to make yourself a summer garment!
I’m developing a mood board for the next (surprise) colorway in my Kindred Spirits yarn subscription club. If you use Pinterest, you can contribute an image or two here!
A few links for your Sunday reading pleasure
I spend a lot of time reading and here are some of my favorite pieces from around the internet, particularly as they relate to friendship:
Butterfly or Firefly: What’s Your Friendship Style? (🎁 gift link)
The joy of intergenerational friendship (CW: brief mention of suicide) (🎁 gift link)
How to make friends (🎁 gift link)
I hope today’s newsletter finds you in happy friendship with your knitting. I hope you find some time to be outside, to feel grass under your feet or sunshine on your face. I hope you have time to feel yarn running through your fingers, and to know that your knitting can always be a companion.
Knitting is more my constant companion than a passion. And not in the sense that I’m always knitting. I knit often but not daily. I thought I knit a lot until I saw people who seem to knit constantly and produce many projects. I’m comfortable with it always being there when I need or want to knit.
This is such a beautiful piece, and I loved reading everyone's comments too. I learnt knitting as a child and then returned to it in my 30s after having children. It's definitely become a constant friend and support. And I'm so lucky to have been able to make such great knitting friends too.