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| No more wool and knitting needles in women’s hands |
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saadia Khalid
Islamabad
Gone are the days when women, especially old ladies, were found carrying wool and knitting needles in their hands while making knitted pieces in exotic patterns with sheer expertise during winter days.
It was a common sight a few years ago that old ladies, even girls, used to keep themselves busy knitting to kill boredom during the long wintry nights and there used to be a sort of competition among them as to who would be able to complete her pattern first.
But the popularity of knitting has seen a sharp decline during the last decade in our country while the sales of yarns and printed patterns also slumped, as the craft is now increasingly seen as old-fashioned and children are rarely taught to knit in schools.
It was indeed surprising for me upon my visit to the market to get a spool of wool, as I could not get my hands on any despite searching for a whole day in different markets of the twin cities where every shopkeeper, when inquired upon, responded with a weird look. “Yarn...? Which yarn? No madam, we don’t have it,” was the unanimous reply of all shopkeepers. They said wool is no more in demand nowadays, so they don’t keep any at their shops.
Mrs Hameed Sardar, a lady in her 60s, told ‘The News’ that there is only one shop at Purana Qila in Rawalpindi where knitting wool is available but it is not of good quality. “My sister sends me quality wool from Ichhra, Lahore, otherwise, it is not easily found nowadays,” she said.
One reason for decline of this art-cum-hobby is the busy life of the present times where one does not find time to spend on such activities, including the long and tiring practice of knitting, while another reason is the availability of low cost machine-knitted items, which means that consumers can buy a sweater at the same cost as that of purchasing wool and patterns, or often for far less.
On the other hand, there are so many newer means of spending one’s spare time and killing boredom, among which watching TV tops the list of having fun and entertainment without wasting any human energy.
But it is worth mentioning here that the art of knitting is still prevalent in the Western world despite the fact that their lives are far busier than ours and they have far more options available to kill time than in our country. Celebrities, including Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder, Dakota Fanning and Cameron Diaz, have been seen knitting and have helped popularise the revival of the craft but there is hardly any effort seen in Pakistan in this regard as far as our celebrities and influential people are concerned.
On the other hand, vocational training institutes no more offer knitting as a course, which is yet another cause for decline of this traditional art that dates back to the pre-Christian times.
The need is to revive this art that is not only a source of making quality woollies but also a constructive hobby worth continuing.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
