CLOSE KNIT
Yarn shop owners say more men appear to be picking up the hobby
A couple of times a week, Milli Abrams watches as a strange ritual takes place outside her yarn shop in Richmond upon Thames. Depending on the day, a shifty-looking off-duty builder or policeman will appear on the opposite side of the street from her shop, Tribe, and then walk by.
Glancing in as they stroll past the shop to check if anyone is inside, they will keep walking if they spy any customers, “but if the shop is empty, they'll come in and buy some yarn.” They are the “closet knitters,” Abrams says, they are keen hobbyists and loyal customers who love to knit but keep it a secret from their colleagues.
“There is such a stigma around (men knitting) still,” says Abrams. “The builder's workmates are constantly taking the mickey out of him about it, and the policeman will only do it at home and none of his colleagues know.”
This small band of secret customers forms part of a rush of new male knitters coming through her door in recent months.
“This year in lockdown we've seen a lot more younger guys doing it,” she says. “They're making chunky knits for their girlfriends and their moms, but they're mainly picking it up in order to do something mindful and so they can put their phones down.
“When we first opened (in 2018), men were making practical things like laptop bags or socks and not a lot else, but now it seems to be a lot more about mindfulness and just the practice of doing it.”
Knitting, much like bread making, has experienced a surge in popularity this year as people have attempted to channel their anxiety and new-found free time into mindful hobbies that pull them away from a screen.
Online retailer Hobbycraft revealed searches for “knitting” were up by 400 per cent.
Meanwhile, social media has been flooded with people showing off their knitting projects.
Even Olympian Tom Daley has dived into the trend, posting pictures to a new Instagram account for his creations. Over lockdown, Daley produced an impressive collection, including a tea cosy, a sweater, a Christmas decoration and a poncho for his two-year-old son, Robbie.
“I started knitting at the beginning of lockdown and have been obsessed ever since,” he said. “I have started to crochet now also!”
Former Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, 73, also admitted recently to being a prolific knitter. “I used to hold the spool of wool for my mom,” he revealed on the Tea with Twiggy podcast. “She taught me the plain stitch and I still do it today. I knit endless scarves now.”
If a Rolling Stone can freely admit to being partial to a spot of purl ridge, why the embarrassment around the topic? Abrams says that although the number of male customers in her shop has soared, men still tend to stay well away from her knitting classes.
“Guys aren't as keen on getting direction,” she says. “Before lockdown, every third class we'd have a guy, sometimes really young, sometimes retired. But not many.”
Farah Govani, 40, who runs knitting school Knit Hub 24, has recently started running men-only classes, which have proved popular.
“They just feel a bit more comfortable,” says Govani, whose own work has frequently appeared at London Fashion Week. “We had a customer from Germany who came to us to do a class (and said he had) found it very difficult to find a class where it was just guys.”
Asif Dhanani, 49, a former banker who came to knitting late in life, said he believes knitting can be just as therapeutic for men as it can be for women.
“We feel that knitting has a lot to do with mental health,” he says. “It's repetitive and it's rhythmic. You don't have to think very much. You're talking to your friend and doing this repetitive thing and you relax. You hear these needles in the background going `click, click, click,' and you go into almost a trance. It occupies your mind in a certain way where you just chill. It's quite addictive.”
Lloyd Burr took up knitting in earnest in lockdown as a way to stay busy. A 33-year-old journalist, Burr started knitting merely as a hobby but soon found himself making scarves for friends and later strangers who came across his Instagram account. He has made more than 60 now.
“You've just got to be confident and explain what you want” when shopping. “Even the people who work in these shops, who are always women, have a bit of a chuckle (when you come in), so there's definitely a stigma there.”