Learning a new stitch
Knitting gets an image makeover
By Katherine Peters

Hnnah Schlaudt is one of the many younger people who have started knitting as a hobby.

Once upon a time, the word "knitting" conjured up images of ugly, scratchy wool sweaters, followed by writing a thank-you card to great-grandma. But today, many people in Chesterfield are redefining that little word.

Visit the Tuesday Night Knitters, a knitting group that meets at the Barnes and Noble on Huguenot Road, and you'll find a group of about 20 jocular ladies knitting intricate lace sweaters, fashionable ponchos and colorful socks-not the stereotypical fare.

Some members of the group have been knitting for decades and others for just a couple of years. "It's all different knitters of different ages" depending on the night, says the group's coordinator, Jane Pollard.

Many people caught in the fun-fur scarf craze of a few years ago have now found themselves hooked on knitting.

"People are finding they could do a lot more than they thought they could," says Lynne Cloninger, co-owner of Lettuce Knit in Stony Point Shopping Center. Although wool felt pocketbooks and slipper socks are the latest trends, she's seen many people graduate to full sweaters.

"What's really interesting is the different occupations of the people who come in here," she says, mentioning the lawyers, teachers, physicians and students who have attended the shop's "Walk-In Wednesday" classes. "It's not the cross-section you might think."

Hnnah Schlaudt, a 17-year-old Chesterfield resident, learned to knit from her grandmother when she was four-and promptly forgot for years.

Now she and her friends get together for tea and cookies while spinning out stitched wonders, working on cross-stitch, sewing or knitting as their fancy takes them.

"It's almost a little of an obsession-my siblings are always like, 'You're knitting again?'" Hnnah says, laughing. But she isn't tempted to give it up.

"It's something you can do just when you're talking to people." Her current projects include colorful socks, a baby sweater and a lace shawl.

The patterns are changing too, says Natalie Blake of Got Yarn on Midlothian Turnpike. As the scarf craze dies out, she's seen knitting magazines begin catering to younger tastes as well as the traditional.

"A lot of younger people have taken it up," Blake says, "and they are looking at the yarns that are natural yarns, not acrylics."

If there is any doubt about knitting as a current trend, a look online proves that knitting has jumped into the 21st century.

Some Internet sites are dedicated to sharing patterns and meeting other knitters. Others, like Pollard's sisterknitter.typepad.com blog, feature amusing stories from bloggers' lives.

But one of knitting's greatest boons is not a tangible garment.

"It's almost like knitting throws you into a different frame of mind," Cloninger says. Like other knitters, she finds that sitting down with knitting needles amidst a busy and stressful world means learning patience and serenity. "It's more about a process than a finished product," she says.