That Clicking Sound

By Flora Tartakovsky

It was almost a scene out of Friends when a gang of eight professionals gathered at a Greenwich Village coffee house last week. But these twentysomethings weren't obsessing over their tangled love lives. One financial administrator was working on baby booties for her niece, a handbag designer was showing off her semi-completed angora scarf, and a few others were struggling to learn the purl stitch. All are part of Mimi Tsang's 12-member knitting circle, which includes two men. They meet for brunch or dinner in New York City cafes, sometimes clicking away as long as five hours. Says Tsang, 26: "People are always curious and kind of stare at us."

Do you blame them? The new millennium has barely begun, and Gen Xers are already trying to turn back the clock. Weary of staring at computer screens all day and bored with the monochrome sweater sets at Banana Republic, they have turned to an old craft for satisfaction. Four million people, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, began knitting last year alone, according to the Craft Yarn Council of America. A recent "Knit Out" in New York drew 7,000 people to check out the latest in fashions and supplies, more than double the previous year. Hundreds of websites, such as eknitting.com offer lessons, patterns and books.

The hobby has become equally hot among the on-the-set set. Hilary Swank of Boys Don't Cry chatted with Jay Leno about her passion for the craft, joining the celebrity knitting circle that includes Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder and, yes, Monica Lewinsky.

Clearly, Grandma has lost her monopoly on knitting. The acrylic monstrosities of yesterday are being replaced by chunky runway knockoffs. Both Valentino and Christian Dior have emphasized knitwear in their collections. "Every major fashion magazine of the moment is screaming, 'Knits are big!'" says Trisha Malcolm, editor in chief of both Vogue Knitting and Family Circle Knitting.

La Knitterie Parisienne, a shop in Los Angeles that's popular enough to merit a publicist, is packed with 13,000 yarns in everything from chenille to silk to cashmere. "The difference today is in the fabrics," says Edith Eig, owner of the shop. "People used to knit with wool because they didn't have the choice. Today you have every choice imaginable." The selection doesn't come cheap. A 10-g ball of angora costs about $15. Sound fair? Well, consider that 35 balls are needed for an average angora sweater.

For Lily Chin, who travels the U.S. as a knitting instructor, the craft goes deeper than fashion and fame. "The U.S. is the hardest-working country in the world," says Chin, 38. "We need the downtime, and knitting has been scientifically proved to be a stress reducer." Since she began giving lessons in 1991, Chin has had a dramatic drop in the average age of her students. Why? Gloria Steinem had her day, but now Martha Stewart says it's O.K.--even empowering--to nest. "Sometimes I can work 12 hours a day and not accomplish much," explains Yassy Okamoto, 27, a corporate lawyer in Tsang's knitting circle. "When you make something with your hands, like knitting, you create, and that's the kind of satisfaction I don't necessarily get from my job."

Knitting has conquered the generational divide, but gender is another matter. Few men are comfortable calling themselves knitters. Nicole Smaglick, 27, a tour-company owner in Minnesota, reports that her attempts to interest her fiance in knitting have been fruitless. "I think it's the Y chromosome in him," she says. But that same trait may soon prompt men to reconsider. These days knitting is a great way to meet young women.

--With reporting by Dan Cray/Los Angeles

With reporting by Dan Cray/Los Angeles