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Katie Kirk, 30, who began crocheting about eight years ago, creates a variety of items for sale, including hats, sweaters and plush toys known as Amigurumi.
An Amigurumi toy knitted by Katie Kirk.
Katie Kirk’s 10-month-old son Reid models the sweater she knitted for him while pregnant.
Katie Kirk, 30, who began crocheting about eight years ago, creates a variety of items for sale, including hats, sweaters and plush toys known as Amigurumi.
An Amigurumi toy knitted by Katie Kirk.
Katie Kirk’s 10-month-old son Reid models the sweater she knitted for him while pregnant.
While knitting and crocheting were once thought of as an old-fashioned hobby, a new generation of crafters are picking up their knitting needles and crochet hooks and breathing new life into the activity.
Local resident Katie Kirk, 30, said she first started crocheting about eight years ago when she was looking for something to do to keep her mind busy.
“I tried to learn how to crochet about three times before it stuck,” Kirk said. “When it finally stuck is when the YouTube tutorials became more available online.”
About three years later, Kirk also taught herself how to knit using online tutorials.
“I have been messing with yarn ever since then,” she said.
While crocheting utilizes one tool to hook loops, knitting requires two needles to form loops from the yarn, making it the more complicated of the two techniques.
“I would say probably knitting can be more in-depth pattern-wise and stitch-wise,” Kirk said. “They both have different types of stitches.”
Always a crafty person, Kirk learned how to cross-stitch in middle school and also used to enjoy making friendship bracelets. It came as no surprise to those closet to her that she would eventually pick up a pair of knitting needles.
Today, she handcrafts a variety of items both for herself and to sell to others.
“Before COVID-19 started, I was doing a craft fair market and was pretty successful there,” she said.
Some of Kirk’s favorite items to create are beanie hats and also a type of plush toy animal known as Amigurumi.
“It is relaxing to me,” she said. “I just enjoy making items that when other people buy something for me and then I see their kids wearing it, or they tag me in a picture, it makes me so happy.”
Those interested in seeing Kirk’s work and do so on her Instagram: @fiber.and.felt, and contact her if they are interested in having an item made.
Kirk said she even utilizes social media to stay in touch with other people active in knitting and crocheting today.
“There is a whole yarn community out there,” Kirk said.
For 73-year-old Jean Chapman, the resurgence of knitting and crocheting amongst a whole new generation came as a bit of a surprise.
Chapman said she began knitting during the early 1960s while attending Daviess County Middle School.
“We had a math teacher that was an avid knitter,” Chapman said. “She was always knitting when she had a free moment in school and I kept watching her and she was going to teach the knitting class, so I thought ‘I am going to do that’.”
Chapman’s first knitting project was a sweater.
“She helped me along and I got it all finished and I wore it quite a bit,” she said.
By the time Chapman got to high school, it seemed that there was no longer any interest in knitting amongst her peers.
“When we were in school, we took it up but then it kind of died out after we got through middle school,” she said. “I don’t recall anybody in my high school was doing any knitting or anything. Their mothers were.”
Chapman said that there is more out there when it comes to supplies for the newest generation of crafters than was available when she first started knitting.
“They are coming out with all kinds of different yarns that they didn’t have back when I first started,” she said.
Chapman said there is a new type of yarn that is textured to make dish clothes, something she said makes for a good project for beginners.
“I talk to a group of 4-H girls and they caught onto it pretty quickly,” she said. After we got them through the course, they made some and entered them in the fair and won some prizes.”
The different colored textured yarn, which retails on amazon for about $5.49 for a 3oz package, can be used to create different images on the dish cloths such as snowmen, a sunflower or Easter Rabbit.
“You are only limited by your imagination,” Chapman said.
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