Knitting isn’t just for grandmothers.
That’s what Kelly Korman said she wishes people understood about her club.
As president of Close-Knit Gators, a knitting and crocheting club, she organized a knit-a-thon to pump out hat after hat for eight hours to donate to Shands’ breast cancer patients.
About six club members sat on the Plaza of the Americas on Friday with yarn and baked goods to keep them going.
At the knit-a-thon, the members sat next to a tree covered in handmade pink scarves, complete with the iconic breast cancer ribbon and a light-pink bikini, discussing tattoos and ways to stretch a college budget.
They passed out self-examination fliers that read, “Time to take your breasts into your own hands.”
“We made the club to show that knitting can be a powerful craft,” Korman said.
They hope to have about 30 finished hats and scarves to donate to Shands within the week.
Korman said the club initially wanted to yarn bomb the campus, which is where people cover monuments with scarves and other items—essentially, removable graffiti.
They wanted to put the pink bikini on an Albert statue in the Emerson Alumni Hall courtyard and cover the Turlington potato statue with a giant sweater, but the university administration wouldn’t allow that.
Katherine Artman, vice president of the club, said she had to learn to knit when she joined.
It didn’t go well. Then, she tried to crochet, and it just clicked for her.
Between the two of them, they cover both techniques. Korman teaches members to knit, and Artman teaches them to crochet.
But they are both out to prove that knitting isn’t for the timid.
“This isn’t your grandmother’s knitting circle,” Artman said.
