Computer analyst David Hogg, 47, says he knits at work to relax because of his chronic high blood pressure.Knitting fad doesn't discriminate
More Detroit-area men and boys count stitches for health reasons and for fun.
Fifth-grader Truman Stuart, 11, knits during handwork class, which is part of Oakland Steiner School's curriculum.
Handwork teacher Martina Preczewski tries on a student-made mitten while fifth-grader Shimon Mitsui, 11, of Bloomfield Hills knits.
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FARMINGTON HILLS -- Following doctor's orders, every day at lunchtime David Hogg, 47, pushes away from the desk at his computer analyst's job in Farmington Hills and picks up his knitting.
Hogg suffers from chronic high blood pressure. Medications and the relaxation he gets from building rows of colorful yarn into scarves and sweaters for family and co-workers has helped to keep his condition in check.
"It's a way to deal with a stressful day," said Hogg, who has several knitting projects started at work. At home, he's working on a copy of the inmate-created poncho Martha Stewart wore the day she strolled out of federal prison.
"At first, I was all fingers and thumbs, but I've gotten good enough to teach my daughter and niece," Hogg said.
More men are turning to the ancient art of knitting to find health benefits and relaxation and to express their creativity, experts say.
Even young boys are picking up knitting needles. At the Oakland Steiner School in Rochester Hills, knitting is part of the curriculum, said Kathleen Erickson, the school's enrollment coordinator. The idea is that it strengthens hand-and-mind coordination.
Harry Smith didn't learn to knit in school. He was taught as a child by his grandmother, who watched over him during his sometimes frightening asthma attacks.
He said the methodical counting and hand manipulations calmed him when he had difficulty breathing, and it also kept him busy while his friends played.
Now in his late 40s, the clinical psychologist is forming a knitting group of about 15 male and female members at Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit.
"Knitting is a wonderful way to look at life," Smith said.
"You make a lot of mistakes and you have to learn to correct your mistakes. You have to tear it back down and start over sometimes. Like life, there is nothing you can do that is that terrible that (it) can't be repaired and come out with something useful."
Knitting's popularity surged when photos were published in celebrity magazines of Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz toting needles and balls of yarn. It's called "KIPing," for knitting in public.
The trend was helped by the introduction of fancy textured yarns made of high-tech acrylics, and also a craze to return to natural handspun wool and fibers like alpaca.
It used to be a manly art. The first known men's knitting trade guild was founded in Paris in 1527.
Hand knitting became a household occupation for both sexes in England, with wool stockings becoming a major British export throughout Europe by the end of the 1600s.
Knitting clubs for men have sprung up recently across the nation, including in Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York and Washington. There's even a place on the Internet for men who knit called MenKnit.net, where the motto is, "Man enough to knit; strong enough to purl." A purl is a type of stitch.
Karen Kendrick-Hands owns City Knits in Detroit's Fisher Building. She said the increasing number of men joining knitting clubs associated with her shop has inspired her to begin work on a knitting instruction book specifically for men.
"I've wanted for some time to put a book of instruction together just for men because it's always better than having to pick one up that's pink," she said.
Her son, Stephen Hands, learned to knit as a student at the Detroit Waldorf School.
Now a political science and economics junior at Kenyon College in Ohio, Stephen Hands occasionally meets with a Thursday night coed knitting club on campus. The club offers a place to talk and relax, he said.
"A lot of people knit to create, and they enjoy it," Stephen Hands said. "I knit if I want something. I needed a winter hat and that was the last thing I made."
All boys and girls who attend the private Waldorf schools, such as Oakland Steiner, get knitting instruction from first through fifth grade.
In addition to coordination benefits, knitting blends mathematical discipline with artistic creativity, according to the school.
"When you are a beginner, it's something you have to think about," said Kahlia Chehade of White Lake and a fifth-grader at Oakland Steiner. "Later, you don't. It's like walking and talking. It's natural and relaxing. It's about the head, heart and hands working together."
Classmate Jeff Cavanagh of Troy is excited by what he learns to make. He's proud of his handmade mittens. Next, it's socks.
Second-grader Garrett Stuart has mastered finger knitting, creating stuffed toy sheep, horses and dogs in his spare time at home in Troy.
His parents have a hard time keeping up with his demand for more yarn.
"He can crank these out in a weekend or less, and they are really cool," said Garrett's father, Terry Stuart. "I don't think he thinks a minute of it as a gender thing, only that he's adept at it and it earns him praise.
"Some of what he is doing I can't even figure out how to help him. He solves his own problems."
None of fifth-grader Adrian Mitchell's friends back home in Romeo knit, and he has paid no attention to the few who questioned his passion for the craft.
Instead, he praised his classmates for their skill.
"Shimon (Mitsui) is so fast," Mitchell said. "And, Mika (Portugaise) has the tightest stitches in the class. It's like trying to look through metal."
As a health benefit, knitting was one of the activities recommended by Dr. Herbert Benson, an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Mind/Body Medical Institute, when he wrote his book, "The Relaxation Response." The book was an outline for reducing stress for patients with heart conditions, high blood pressure, chronic pain, insomnia and other physical ailments.
Edmund Neumaier, 40, a registered nurse working night shifts in the emergency room at Henry Ford Bi-County Hospital in Warren, taught himself to knit as a stress reliever 20 years ago.
But his interest has grown in it as an artistic expression. He recently bought two spinning wheels, costing $600 and $800, to make his own yarn.
"I've become a yarn snob," Neumaier said. "I think that's the male side of knitting. Of course, you have to have the best tools. It's a guy thing too to collect all the right equipment."
Neumaier said he keeps a variety of projects going at all times; simple afghans or throws that don't require a lot of complex stitching counts are balanced against three-dimensional objects like sweaters.
"There is something really good about being appreciated for doing something well," he said. "When someone wears a sweater you made and people are surprised and wowed by it, there's a lot of benefit in that."
Neumaier also has downloaded a pattern from an Internet knitting outlet to copy Stewart's prison poncho.
"That one was crocheted, but, of course, they came out with a knit version right away," he said.
"I've had a bunch of people request it, and I've told them now's the time for you to learn to knit."
You can reach Doug Guthrie at (313) 222-2359 or dguthie@detnews.com
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