The Fakenham Film Festival launched this week and is going on until 4 October. Several of the shops in Fakenham have done amazing window displays to promote the event – I feel a bit embarrassed because I basically forgot to do one myself, but it did turn my thoughts towards films and knitting and what links I can draw between them, if any.
The fact is that knitting is perceived by many people to be a pastime indulged in by grandmothers – images of white haired old ladies cheerily knitting baby clothes or hats for charity spring to mind. Of course this is not unreasonable – many grandmothers knit. At least one of my customers a day is looking for baby wool for a new grandchild or even great grandchild. I have to say that none of them resemble the stereotype. They are usually rather elegant women and I do not know if it is to do with my own age, but I am constantly being suprised by people informing me that they are in their 80’s or even 90’s, as someone did yesterday. This stereotype means, however, that in this community, people are often pleased and excited when they find that a celebrity, who is not necessarily a grandmother, is a knitter or crocheter.
The most obvious example of this is the diver, Tom Daley – a young, sporting man, who is a prolific knitter and crocheter and who I think has now launched his own brand. And he will be presenting the proposed reality TV knitting competition that is apparently arriving on our screens soon. But he is late to the party. One of the most iconic images of a celebrity knitting, I think is the one of Katherine Hepburn knitting on the set of one of her films. There is a similar one of Audrey Hepburn, looking elegant with a her knitting on her lap. I have found apicture too of Doris Day knitting, but she had such a wholesome image that it occurred to me that it might have been a publicity exercise. Ryan Gosling said in an interview to an Australian magazine, that he finds knitting soothing and relaxing, Patrick Stewart was taught to knit by his mother, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep are also keen knitters apparently. I have a particular soft spot for Michelle Obama who is also a knitter and who has written about how important it is to her, and the novelist Barbara Kinsolver.
Those are some of the celebrities who knit. Of course in the knitting world we also have our own celebrities who are famous for their work – Stephen West, best known for his shawls, Kafe Fassett who has been designing amazing patterns for half a century now and even has had an exhibition at the V&A. Debbie Bliss (now working for West Yorkshire Spinners), Marie Wallin – designer of fair isle and other colourwork, Janie Crow who made me realise that crochet was not necessarily all about granny squares, and many more. Stephen West will apparently be at the Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace next week – he will be mobbed, I should imagine, by hordes of middle aged women draped in shawls he has designed.
It may sound ridiculous, but I love the fact that so many people who otherwise lead glamourous, high octane lives, also knit or crochet. Of course they do it because working with your hands is so mindful and relaxing. To me, however, it makes these people seem somehow more real. Not to mention reminding us all that not only grannies knit.