Knit-wits

And since fashionable people are knitting things such as slinky halter tops while doing tech-savvy things such as downloading music, it's only natural that the Internet has become an oracle of sorts for someone stumped by a Fair Isle pattern. In fact, 1 of 10 knitters uses the Web to find patterns and seek out advice, according to the Craft Yarn Council.

"Think of how freeing this is as a knitter," says Pearl-McPhee, whose blog can be found at yarnharlot.ca/blog. "Up until blogging, if you knit a [bad] buttonhole you might be stuck until you can get to a knitting store. Now, I can take a picture of the buttonhole, put it up online, and in 10 minutes I can have someone from Atlanta writing to say, 'I did that last week. You need to do a yarn over.' I'm definitely a better knitter because of it."

Most knitting blogs contain what's called a "blog roll," or a list of links to other favorite knitting blogs. Pearl-McPhee, who has been a blogger for the past year and a half, has a list of about 38 links on her website.

Some blogs ask readers to vote on the direction of a project: "How should I knit these Christmas stockings?" asks a blogger at somecallthemsticks.blogspot.com. Sixty percent told her to use good wool and do the best job that she can. Others seem to have an almost competitive spirit: "The knitting Internet seems to have some kind of a lace obsession right now. I seem to have been bitten by the same bug," confesses Beetle Blog at beetle.cbtlsl.com, a 30-something father of four living in Arizona. Others have arranged sock swaps since many have never received a knitted gift of their own.

But what really solidifies the online friendships is the chance to meet in person. At Circles, the knitting store in Boston, there were continuous moments of recognition between the bloggers nestled among soft chairs. "Aren't you the Subway Knitter?" (subwayknitter.typepad.com) someone asked her neighbor. One blogger (happyfroggyknits.squarespace.com) who had traveled several hours from upstate New York, elicited clucks of concern when she revealed her town did not have a knitting store. Potluck dishes were gathered in a back room. Pearl-McPhee perched on a stool, legs crossed, fingers busy, and told a funny story or two. Soon the awkward social lines dissolved.

These blogging knitters - gleeful in their shared obsession - will go to extraordinary lengths to maintain their new-found friendships, even if it means putting the computer keyboard so that they can scroll through pages with their toes while they knit.

"A year ago I'd never been anywhere alone, and now I've been to 45 cities in the US," says Pearl-McPhee. "Everywhere I went I had connection to someone I know. Really good for the soul, that."

As I sat on the plane leaving for Chicago, I pulled my knitting from my bag (a sock) ... and began to organize myself. As I did so, a gentleman near me stared intently at my knitting needles.

"Hello," I said, smiling. Lots of people ask me about my knitting. I thought for sure that's where this was headed.

"Are those metal?" he asked, gesturing at my 2-mm needles.

"Yup," I said....

"I'm uncomfortable with those," he says.

"What, the knitting needles?" I answer. "They're allowed items." And I smiled again....

The gentleman looks at me and says: "Yes. The needles. You know," he says to me, clearly feeling a need to elaborate, since I am starting to look at him with confusion, "for terrorist reasons."

- Excerpt from her Oct. 3 blog

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