Wool gets a new look

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 16

Wool gets a new look

Yarn retailers in New Zealand have noticed a change .in the “average” customer. No longer is she the grandmother knitting for her extended family, today she may be the office girl next door. One retailer commented: “A tremendous number of young people are knitting for themselves. There is fashion in knitting at last.”

New designs from the knitter, Lee Andersen, and the trend towards big blocks of colours, coupled with large, loose shapes, have sparked changes in the world of the hand-knitted jersey. But while there has been a shift in the market to easy-to-knit patterns and plain yarns in bright, vibrant colours, manufacturers and’ retailers are worried: does today’s young women know all the options available to her through knitting? Does she know how to knit?

In November, 1983, at an industry meeting, manufacturers discussed the drop in wool-yarn sales and the need to attract young women to knitting. The manufacturers of the six major hand-knitting yarn brands — Kaiapoi, Sheperd, Fontana, Thorobred Sheepjeswool, Crucci, and McMahon’s Farm — joined

the Wool Board in the first joint promotion, “Knit an Original.” The campaign in Christchurch will open next week. More than 25 new retail patterns will be available for knitted garments and accessories, in new shapes and colours. “We are out to defend wool’s position in the market, but we also want to ensure that handknitting has a positive image with young people, because they are the ones who make up the next generation of yarn consumers,” says Mr Bill Rushworth, the Wool Board’s apparel manager. “Through research, we found out that brand advertising reaches only 25 per cent of our target market of young people — those that knit regularly. But there are 62 per cent who have not knitted in the last 12 months and 13 per cent who do not know how to knit. This is a large market that has been forgotten until now.” He says the upsurge in interest in fashion handknits, which . started when Paris designers began to include them in their collections a few seasons ago, has helped knitting’s popularity.