Women Feel the Power of Knitting

On a chilly winter afternoon, nine women gather on comfy couches in Duke's Women's Center to chat about the sweaters, hats, scarves or socks they are knitting.

In stark contrast to the grandmotherly image perhaps still tied to knitting, Duke's newest club includes graduate students, faculty and staff. Once word circulates, founder Shannon Johnson hopes the group will attract undergraduates and Durham community members as well.

 

Johnson, program coordinator of Duke's Women's Center, began knitting with the help of books this past December and says the idea of organizing a knitting circle came to her as she noticed increased knit-stitching both on campus and beyond. (Biology grad students also have their own knitting group, which they call "Stitch 'n Bitch.")

 

"I thought of it in December as I was teaching myself [how to knit], then sent out a notice in January during the snowstorm," Johnson explains. "I saw it as a way for women to come together and share community."

 

Interested men would not be excluded, Johnson insists, although the new knitting-circle has thus far been publicized primarily through female-dominated email lists.

 

Although some may regard knitting as a passive, traditional "woman's activity," the nine knitters at the group's Feb. 12 inaugural meeting perceive their hobby quite differently. As their able fingers work the yarn, these knitters express -- sometimes subtlety, sometimes explicitly -- a sense of empowerment attained through the old-fashioned craft.

 

Amy Leigh, archivist at the Perkins Library Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, explains that knitting for her is in part a small protest "against consumer culture."

 

When Johnson suggests during the meeting that they come up with a name for their new group, members consider proposals ranging from "Devil-Darners" to "Pins and Needles" to "Knit-Wits." By the time the projects and patterns are packed for the night, "Women's Revolutionary Knitting Circle" prevails.

 

Yet, fundamentally, these women are hooked on their hobby and enthusiastic about the future of Duke's newest knitting society for personal rather than political reasons.

 

Carrie Levesque, visiting assistant professor of Slavic languages and literature, describes knitting as thoroughly relaxing and an excellent "procrastination tool." She recounts how long, wooly projects helped her cope with -- and forestall -- the dissertation she completed in 2002 to earn a Duke Ph.D.

 

Samadrita Roychowdhury, a fourth-year physics graduate student, was taught to knit while in the fifth grade by her mother. Knitting is a cultural norm in her native India. Roychowdhury abandoned the almost compulsory craft soon after, only to pick up the needles once again years later, after migrating to the U.S.

 

Ilene Nelson, director of communications for Duke's libraries, compares knitting to bread-making. "You have these raw materials that have life in them."

 

Meg Lippincott, a first-year medical student, has misgivings about joining the group. As the meeting's lone crocheter, she worries how her craft will be received by the knitters.

 

When Lippincott unzips a sports bag to reveal several feet of a stunning, bright-wine-colored afghan, all conversations stop. The other members gush over her eight-month-old creation, and Lippincott's earlier concerns melt away. Once the afghan is finished, she intends to give it as a gift to her younger brother.

 

Though many members say they've given away most of their handiwork, first-year biology grad student Suzanne Joneson bashfully admits that she typically abandon her projects before completion. Still, she loves the idea of learning from others, creating new things and reveling in a relaxed atmosphere where she hopes to meet more Dukies outside her department.

 

The group members are optimistic about the future of the "Women's Revolutionary Knitting Circle." Between the laughs and the stitches, they talk about attracting new members (these friendly knitters insist that one need not be an expert to join their ranks -- just eager to learn), swapping tips on fabric suppliers, exchanging favorite patterns and Web site addresses, helping each other with stubborn stitches and, most of all, as Shannon Johnson had envisioned from the outset, "sharing in the camaraderie."

 

Written by Martina Musich, a senior from the Bronx, N.Y.