For the Moment

The midterm scene got your down? Need a fast, inexpensive way to relieve some stress? Lose the Prozac, drop the T'ai Chi classes and pick up the pastime that's got the whole university buzzing with coffeetalk .Try knitting.

For roommates Alexa Kemeny '94 and Palin Gaither '94, who just turned in their theses last Friday, knitting helped assuage those last-minute thesis jitters.

"It's therapeutic. It takes my mind off things," Kemeny said .

"My sweater and my thesis had a race to see which finished first," she said. "My sweater won."

Kemeny waxed ebullient about her latest creation, which she described as "an Icelandic pattern of natural black sheep wool, you know, kind of a dark brown between gray herb and coffee. There's a snowflake pattern around the yolk, sleeves and waistband--a heathery oatmeal gray interspersed with a bright cherry red." Clearly, knitting has heightened Kemeny's appreciation for colors.

Kemeny and Gaither were so inspired by their hobby that, just half a semester ago, they helped found the Mather House Knitting Club.

"We were just sitting and talking, and the subject of knitting came up. My roommate and I begged to learn," Kemeny said. "Suddenly, we got the idea for a knitting club."

Tina Lu, a resident tutor at Mather House and one of the co-founders if the Knitting Club, described the club's inception as "quite spontaneous."

The Master of the house, Dr. Sandra Naddaff, also participates in the sartorial festivities, and is recognized as one of the club's best. "I've had thirty years experience," Nadaff said. "I couldn't be more pleased with the club's creation."

Turnouts to the Tuesday night gatherings have been respectable--about ten people show up every week. And lest you think that real men don't knit, just let David Ellison demonstrate his killer cable stitch. Ellison, a resident tutor at Mather, learned the ancient art from two women associates at a consulting firm 8 years ago.

"I've been doing it on and off ever since," he said. "The Knitting Club really motivated me to knit more often."

According to Ellison, knitting actually started out as an activity dominated by men--fishermen, to be exact, who had to knit sweaters in order to keep warm in the winter.

Ellison makes no bones about his hobby--"I bring my knitting to tutor meetings and group discussions."

But Matherites aren't the only ones with a yen for yarn. Two years ago, Winthrop House, too, created its own Knitting Society. Currently, it boasts as loyal and ever-growing following.

According to Bill Hilton, a Winthrop House tutor, mittens are currently the cutting edge in knitwear. "So are hats and socks," he added.

For these avid knitting buffs, nothing quite compares to creating their own clothing from scratch. Gaither values her knitwork as "wearable art."

"It's something very tangible, you know. Like if someone were to ask me what I did for my thesis, I wouldn't know where do start. With knitting, I can show them my sweater."