Knit Together in Hard Times
Visit http://www.BeginToKnit.com; visit http://www.KnittingForProfit.com also
In this time of economic crisis, beginning to knit might actually be a good thing. Although it may seem at first glance to be counter-intuitive, the fact is that aside from the stress-relieving qualities of knitting, there may be other important factors as well – that of creating an additional income stream.
A young woman in beleaguered Elkhart, Indiana, recently made famous on the news when President Obama visited to talk about what he would do about unemployment, discovered this little secret. She has many friends that appreciated some of the knitted items that she was beginning to wear in the cold weather, including a beautiful sweater made especially for her to wear to work – knit by her husband.
Yes, that’s right, her husband.
During the winter months at his job, he is generally lucky to put in a 20 hour week. This particular year was a little worse than others. They had seen difficulties as well due to a foreclosure, and other situations that had put their finances in a tailspin.
“One of the girls that I work with commented on how pretty my scarf was,” said the young woman, who we’ll call Jenny to protect her privacy. “I asked what she would pay for one like it, and the idea just grew from there.” Before she knew it, she had collected orders for around 25 scarves, a real blessing for all considering Christmas was just around the corner. “It almost replaced my husband’s lost income from the time off, and we were able to make our bills.” Jenny also commented that, although it is an unusual pastime for a man, knitting proved to be most beneficial for him in this situation. “It’s hard on a man to not be able to make money to take care of his family. This way, he was able to use his knitting skill.”
It was good for Jenny’s colleagues too as her husband was able to custom knit the scarves. He had different styles of stitches and an unbelievable variety of colors. He knit them for men, women and children. There is an extra added bonus – she works at a leading retailer and was able to get a discount on the yarn. There were actually people picking out the yarn they wanted to use. Some wanted school colors, some wanted to match with a favorite coat, and some wanted colors to match their favorite team. Fortunately, Jenny’s husband is highly proficient and was able to knit at about the rate of one scarf per six hours of straight-on knitting.
And he still managed to maintain the tradition of making a hand-knit sweater for each of their four children for Christmas.
Does it bother Jenny that he knits so much better than she does? Not even a little bit. In fact, he is actually the person who taught her to knit. She is really quite proud of him. “He is highly gifted,” she said. Maybe in these difficult times, more of us should begin to knit as well.
Most of the services reviewed by this website are available or may be accessed from Australia (see 