All in a stitch
You want a new sweater. A teen wants a hip tote or a comfy pillow. New yarn and fabric boutiques are at the heart of a growing do-it-yourself handicraft community.
Gather Here, a "stitch lounge'' in Cambridge, hosts a knitting brunch. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)Anna Wallack — an obsessive knitter and slightly less obsessive sewer — was right where you’d have expected her to be the morning of March 4: at the opening of J.P. Knit & Stitch, a new yarn and fabric store in Jamaica Plain.
She was wearing her 6 1/2-month-old baby, Nadav Bukhin, in a sling. And he was wearing two knitted sweaters, including a vintage-inspired boat neck; a cashmere blend hat; marino wool leggings in earth tones; and a pair of alpaca thumbless mittens. He was not wearing the tiny cashmere Fair Isle sweater she’d knitted, or his shawl-collared cabled cardigan that makes him look, Wallack said, like a little professor. Or anything from his fabric wardrobe.
“I’ve only sewn one pair of pants for him,’’ she said, apologetically, “so far.’’
Soon Wallack, a 33-year-old wardrobe stylist, was jostling for space in the crowded yarn aisle of the shop, which had attracted 600 people to its e-mail list before it even opened.
J.P. Knit & Stitch — along with Gather Here, a new Cambridge “stitch lounge,’’ and Stitch House in Dorchester — belongs to a new genre of yarn and fabric stores sprouting up in the area that target a growing and fanatical demographic. They are creative, crafty, Internet-involved knitters and sewers — mostly women but also some men — who’ve dusted off and reinvented the traditional women’s handicrafts of sewing, knitting, and crocheting.
Many are college students and young professionals, though it’s an intergenerational population. They gravitate toward richly textured yarns and the kind of bold, graphic fabrics you’d expect to see featured in design magazines like Dwell. They bond in online sewing and knitting communities, especially on the website Etsy and on Ravelry, considered Facebook for knitters. Some buy only organic yarns and fabrics, and many say they simply prefer handmade goods to mass-produced.
And forget their mothers’ tried-and-true work horse McCalls or Butterick sewing patterns. Today’s hip sewers download free ones from the Web, or prefer independent designers like Amy Butler and Heather Bailey, or the children’s pattern company oliver + s, with packaging so clever, each pattern comes with a vintage paper doll. Many of these sewing fans are making small quick-hit projects like tote bags and pillows.
“They’re not necessarily complicated darts and finished dresses,’’ said Genevieve Day, co-owner of J.P. Knit & Stitch with her friend Jennifer Boyd and Boyd’s mother, Pat Boyd. “They’re fresh, fun, fast finished projects that really make an impact.’’
Sheila Scott, 51, a Jamaica Plain librarian, was so excited about the new store she was first in line. She learned to knit from her grandmother.
“I feel pretty sure that she bought her yarn — basic wool in dark colors — at the local dry goods store,’’ said Scott, who belongs to 600 Ravelry sub groups, including “knitters who make Latvian mittens’’ and “knitters who like cupcakes.’’ “I think she would be amazed at J.P. Knit & Stitch. The luxury fibers, the colors . . . the whimsy of the fabric prints. All that Zauberball rockin’ the shelves,’’ she said, referring to the vibrant, multicolored German sock yarn.
Gather Here, a "stitch lounge'' in Cambridge, hosts a knitting brunch. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
You want a new sweater. A teen wants a hip tote or a comfy pillow. New yarn and fabric boutiques are at the heart of a growing do-it-yourself handicraft community.
Gather Here, a "stitch lounge'' in Cambridge, hosts a knitting brunch. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)Page 2 of 2 --
(To say nothing of the store’s “resource center,’’ with an iPad set up to download and print free patterns from the Web.)
Her grandmother probably would be surprised, too, by Gather Here, which opened last month near Central Square in Cambridge. The stitch lounge sells fabric and yarn and also offers community events such as a Saturday knitter’s brunch, quilting bees, introductory classes for adults and kids, plus space and machines where people can sew.
“It’s a response to the fact that we don’t have a lot of space in our lives and don’t often inherit our mother’s sewing machines anymore, or learn those skills from home-ec class,’’ said owner Virginia Johnson, a costume designer who carries only natural fibers, including an “eco-organic’’ line of yarn. Her store also stocks a brand of alternative “ironic’’ cross stitch designs by a company called Subversive Cross Stitch which just rushed into the market with pdf patterns of Charlie Sheen quotes.
Likewise, Annissa Essaibi George considers Stitch House in Dorchester a “boutique’’ yarn and fabric shop “with a very specific, narrow line of fabrics. It’s a reflection of my taste and style. The colors are vibrant, the prints are beautiful, and I don’t carry any solids, because there are plenty of places to buy solids,’’ she said. Besides selling yarns made out of bamboo, silk, soy, yak, and sugar cane, the store hand-dyes its own brand of wool, called Rooftop Yarns.
A decade ago, it seemed as though knitting and sewing anything (other than quilts, perhaps) was a thing of the past, their demise hastened by a general lack of time and, in this post-feminist world, a diminished respect for all things domestic. The fate of Boston’s fabric world seemed to be sealed by the closing of two beloved fabric stores — North End Fabrics in Chinatown in 1999 and Fabric Place in Framingham in 2008. Sewing and knitting enthusiasts were forced to shop online, an imperfect way to buy anything so tactile, or settle for fabric from discount or chain stores.
“There was obviously a real demand for yarn stores,’’ said Susan Baker, who for the last decade has owned the 75-year-old Windsor Button store in downtown Boston, a full-service knitting shop selling all types of yarns from acrylics to organic cottons and alternative fibers.
“When I got to the store the only thing we were carrying was Lion Brand and Red Heart,’’ she said, referring to two lower-end acrylic yarns. “People would come in and say, ‘Is this all you have?’ and you could see the disappointment in their faces.’’
Ten or so years ago, knitting started to rebound, fueled by the post-9/11 cocooning trend and by the introduction of multitextured novelty yarns. “They got people really excited, and they brought a lot of people back to knitting,’’ Baker said. “After a couple of years, people who really enjoyed it didn’t want the novelty yarns: They wanted beautiful, natural fibers.’’
The Internet was a big part of the boom, too, creating online communities, which got even more people involved. “It’s not a solitary pursuit anymore,’’ Baker added. “It’s a social activity.’’
The resurgence of sewing started more recently, and it continues to grow. A new sewing lounge and school called Hipstitch opened last fall in a heavily trafficked area of Newtonville. Craftland School of Craft in Providence has a class for beginners called “How to Wind Your Bobbin and Other Sewing Machine Basics, “and it’s always full,’’ said manager Kristin Crane.
“I think at one point we turned our backs on [sewing] because we had to learn it,’’ said Virginia Johnson of Gather Here. “Now, as women it’s our choice, and when you make something with our own hands, it’s a really wonderful way to express a love and commitment to your home and family and friends.’’
Linda Matchan can be reached at l_matchan@globe.com 
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
