It Need Not Be A Lonely Thing

Posted by
Kelly Gilliam
Mar 17, 2006

When I first began knitting, and subsequently crocheting, I felt like I was the only one. I did not know one person beside myself that knit, and I kept it fairly private. This was primarily because when I started knitting again, I was 18 years old, I felt that I was an unlikely candidate to want to learn knitting, and people made sure they told me that. In fact, I still get called "old lady" from time to time. This is in jest mind you, and rarely at that, and now it's not something that I think twice about, as a little joshing between friends is never a bad thing. However, at 18 and trying to teach myself something new, it made it so I didn't particularly want to share my new craft with people.

Now, don't envision a young girl in a dark room, lit only by a flickering bulb toiling away at her knitting - I wasn't pathetic! I wouldn't take my work with my anywhere though, and that made the process of learning and knitting slow-going.

I started by joining forums and conversing with people online - I wasn't the only one that liked knitting, and to boot, there were hundreds of people online of all ages and walks of life that enjoyed the experience as much as me. I was enthralled, to say the least.

After five years of knitting, I'm looking forward to further expanding my interactions with people and knitting. In the back of my mind now for almost a year, I've been interested in starting up my own knitting group. A few of my friends have expressed an interest in learning to knit, or if they know how already, then to sit down over a cup of tea (or wine...) and gabbing while our hands are working busily away on our scarves, our socks, our cardigans, and our sweaters. This is something I will be attempting to do - to band together my group of friends and get them all in one place so we can all feel like we aren't the lone knitters or crocheters out there, and I do plan to document that experience here at Suite101.

In the meantime, I want to present you with areas in which you can reach out and discuss your hobby with other like-minded individuals. Whether you are the lone knitter, or even if you're a member of an already existing group, it never hurts to reach out and meet new people.

Stitch 'N Bitch Groups across the Globe

How To Start Your Own Stitch 'N Bitch Group (links to .pdf file, requires Adobe Acrobat)

Online Forums:

Knitty CoffeeShop

Crochet Online Crochet Forum via Craftster.org

Online Knitting Forum via Craftster.org

Do you have a good online resource for meeting knitters and crocheters in your area or around the world? Is it a forum or directory of knitting/crochet groups? Start a discussion about it by clicking "start discussion" below!