I'm working on a book project and would like to get some feedback on it from my fellow knitters. The book is "A Knitter's Guide To Beer".

The idea was sparked in a discussion with the owner of a local yarn shop and has developed into a book concept. I've noticed many commonalities between the craft brewing industry and the craft of knitting. The focus on quality ingredients in brewing and quality yarn in knitting, the value of presentation of the finished beer and beautiful needles to knit with, the social aspects of both beer drinking and knitting, the variety of styles available in both, the allowance for individual taste and style in both, and the importance of supporting both the local craft brewer and the local yarn shop.

I've even toyed around with the idea of knitting project and beer pairing. What type of beer is best to drink when you're knitting wool socks? Never drink barleywine when you're knitting lace. And so on...

Since knitting is a craft where you should enjoy the process of knitting (otherwise why bother?) and where the process is enhanced by good tools and beautiful yarn, the experience could be made even better by enjoying a really good pint of beer, with the knowledge of the origin of the beer style and the skill of the brewer.

The other thing I've noticed is that not all pubs are knitter-friendly, which is why groups often have to meet at coffee shops instead. The lack of adequate lighting is a common problem, bar stools don't work well when you're trying to hold your knitting in your lap, booths are right out, and not all pubs allow people under 21. I plan to come up with parameters for a knitter-friendly pub.

The key question that has yet to be determined is how many knitters are there that enjoy a good glass of beer? Of the few people I've mentioned this book idea to, mostly non-knitters, most of them still think of the stereotypical grey-haired granny sitting in a rocking chair drinking tea. "Do knitters drink beer?" is a question I've been asked. The other question is "Are there beer drinkers who knit?"

I'd appreciate hearing back from as many people as possible on this issue. Feel free to forward this email to any other knitters and/or beer drinkers that you know. I'd like to find out of I'm unique in my enjoyment of a good microbrewed pint of beer while I'm knitting, or if this inclination is far more common than most people think.

I have set up a couple of email addresses for researching this idea. info@aknittersguidetobeer.com
or info@jennehiigel.com . I can be emailed at either address.

I look forward to receiving your input.
-Jenne Hiigel
San Luis Obispo, CA

Presumably this is a serious post but even from California I find it offensive!! Why - Oh -Why is everyone trying to make a buck out of our craft.. and where were they 10 years ago before it was "in" ????

I won't tell this poster "knit on" because I doubt he or she is a knitter.. just another opportunist.
Nansea

Well . . . I clicked on this posting because I thought Beer and Knitting hmmm . . . During the summer a nice cold beer is perfectout on the front porch and a bit of knitting . . . I tend to like a Raspberry Wheat for that type of knitting!

Now Nansea lots of folks are making money off of knitting and many of us never will make money off of knitting. I knit becuase I love it and always have and always will and it keeps me humble as who would have ever guess a pair of needls and some wool could be so challenging.

Weather I knit with a cold beer, hot tea, ice tea, or coffee I knit and always will.

Will I buy a book about knitting and beer NOPE but hey it is a free world!

Since you asked, I have been knitting since I was 9 years old. I have been teaching knitting since 1990. I owned a knit shop for five years in downtown San Luis Obispo, CA from 1994 to 1999. Our three children grew up in that knit shop as homeschoolers. They made wonderful connections with fellow knitters and embraced the craft at varying levels. After five years, my shop finally broke even, but it was too late. We needed a real income and I had to close my store and get a full-time job.

I continue to attend knitting groups and lend support to any person in our area that wants to take the plunge and open a knit shop. I'll teach most anyone who asks me how to knit, crochet, or spin, and help out it yarn shops for store credit only.

This book idea did not come out of a goal to make money off the knitting revival. I have never gained financially from my knitting, but I have become rich off the craft in every other way. I do not expect to make much money off this book, if any, if it ever goes to press. But I love the craft and I also have a strong appreciation for the microbrewery revival. I thought others might have the same appreciation for the two crafts.

So that tells you where I was 10 years ago before knitting was "in". I was actively promoting a revival of the craft by operating a spinning/weaving/knitting store and teaching people to knit one person at a time. I sunk a significant inheritance into promoting the craft long before it was "in", by opening my knit shop, and it was worth every cent.

I was carrying Lorna's Laces yarn when it was dyed by Lorna Miser in the Sacramento area, before she sold the business to someone in the midwest so she could spend some more time with her kids.

I was carrying Sweet Grass Wool when Carolyn Greene came by my shop and asked me if I was interested in stocking a quality Targhee wool yarn. Boy that stuff was gorgeous!

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

The reason for my post is to find out whether or not there are other knitters who appreciate the craft of knitting and also enjoy a well crafted beer.

I hope this helps.
-Jenne Hiigel
San Luis Obispo, CA

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jenne Hiigel,

Jenne,

It is a shame one has to give a life history for what you are interested in doing . . . I am not as much a beer person as a knitting person---thus I would not be interested in your book. I do think it is a very creative idea and may be you can even put in something about the women in South America and the beer they brew as they knit!

Best of luck and I am sure I would have loved your shop!

Nancy

Thanks, Nancy. I'll definitely look into the South American women who brew beer while they knit.

People don't necessarily need to be regular beer drinkers to appreciate the craft brews. You mentioned you enjoy a nice Raspberry Wheat Beer. I was at a brewpub in San Francisco that had a Watermelon Wheat Beer. I didn't try it on that trip, but I'll have to give it a try at some point. That's pretty creative brewing.

I noticed that you live in Alaska. In Alaska there are about a dozen microbreweries and brewpubs. I'll have to explore some of those that are distributed in California, until I can find a way to swing a trip to Alaska myself.

When I had my knitting, weaving, and spinning shop, I loved to get weaving shuttles from Bluster Bay Woodworks in Sitka, Alaska. Beautiful craftmanship! I had people who bought them that didn't even weave, just because they were that beautiful.

All the best,
Jenne

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jenne Hiigel,

Sorry, I am not much help. I only drink an occasinal white wine. I don't like the smell or taste of beer. Please, don't take offense.

Pam

Pam,
No offense taken. I'm looking for honest information. Thanks for replying!
-Jenne

Funny, I love to knit and my husband loves to make home brews! Unfortunately, so far I have not liked any of the beers he has made (we have annual beer tasting parties) but he keeps trying to make one that I'll like. We tend to laugh about our hobbies as both of our stashes tend to cost a lot of money! He doesn't know what I have and I certainly don't keep track of his!!!

Since my drug of choice is caffeine, I can't offer any anecdotes about beer and knitting. (I have also learned that anything spillable is a target for my elbows, and therefore find it best to keep liquids far away while knitting.)

I do have several questions, though. What's the objective of your proposed book? That is, do you intend it to be instructive, literary, scholarly, pure entertainment or.....? Who's your target audience/market? Will you be including knitting designs and/or recipes? Have you made any proposals to publishers? Or agents? Are you being sponsored by a brewery or yarn company?

My first reaction is that the relationship between beer and knitting sounds tenuous at best, and that the audience for the book you describe is limited. But books have been written on flimsier hypotheses, and have succeeded because they offered some service to many readers, or otherwise struck a chord.

I am a long-time knitter and my husband is long-time Beer Specialist. (That's actually his job title at the beer and wine distributorship he works for.) He has been actively involved in the microbrewery revival since it started back up in California in the early 1980's.

I started noticing how often yarn shops are located in the same area as the microbreweries he visits. I found myself feeling very comfortable in brewpubs because of the emphasis on discussion of the craft of brewing and the various flavor components of the beers being brewed, rather than what football game is currently going on or how drunk someone got the night before.

As the years went by, I found myself getting spoiled by the availability of fresh, quality beer. Kind of like knitting with a quality Merino wool or alpaca. There's no going back to Red Heart after that. I no longer care for imported beers very much, because I can smell and taste the damage caused to them by heat, light exposure, and age.

When I had my yarn shop, I had several customers where one was a knitter and the other was someone who appreciated a good pint of beer. There was one couple in particular who would make the two hour drive to visit my yarn shop and the local brewpub in our town. Those two businesses were their reason for coming to San Luis Obispo.

When our knit group would meet at 5:30pm after a long day of work, often what I really wanted was a good pint of beer, rather than tea and pastries. Then when I attended Meg Swanson's Knitting Camp a year ago and saw how thrilled my fellow knitters were that the hotel offered bar service to the evening knitting room, I started to realize that I was not the only one who enjoyed a glass of beer with my knitting.

The objective of my book will be to explain the many different styles and flavors of beer available... from a knitter's perspective (me being the knitter). I enjoy the history and culture associated with the beer styles and breweries as much as I enjoy the history and culture of knitting styles and materials.

Where the two can be connected, I plan to do so. For example, a British Bitter and British knitting styles. This is not a homebrew book and will not contain beer recipes. I will most likely include some knitting patterns and instruction, but am still hashing out the details of what to include in the book.

This is not a book for pure entertainment, although I'm hoping it will be entertaining reading. I treat both subjects, knitting and beer, seriously. There will be lots of good information on both subjects in the book.

The book would be for knitters who enjoy craft-brewed beers and want to understand more about the different beer styles available, but aren't inclined to read any of the beer books currently on the market. It would also be for couples where one person is a knitter and the other a beer brewer or connoisseur, so perhaps they can understand and appreciate each other a bit more. And it would be for the beer drinker who is interested in learning how to knit (They can say they're just buying the book for the beer information, if they're embarassed; which I've found that many of them are).

I am not sponsored by anyone. I am just a knitter who enjoys quality yarn and needles, accompanied by a fresh pint of well-brewed beer. As far as approaching publishers and agents, I still have a lot of homework to do before I take that step.

A selfish goal with the book would be to make more brewpubs knitter-friendly. Better lighting, more regular-height tables and chairs, rather than booths and bar stools, a comfortable all-ages atmosphere, and really good beer. It's cool that many brewpubs are already most of the way there.

I hope this helps you to understand my project a bit more. Is there a market for a book like this, or would I just be writing it for my own pleasure? That's what I'm trying to find out by throwing the question out to the guild.

Thanks for the replies!
-Jenne

Jenne--

While I'm not much of a beer drinker, I do applaud any effort to explore the roots of any art if only to enhance one's appreciation and understanding. After all, I often mentally link knitting and boat-building, as my husband prefers that sort of delight (and wood & tool stash building),

I did lead a group of new knitters in a weekly gathering at the British Banker's Club, a Menlo Park, CA, pub-like spot in 1999. PM me if that's of interest.

Jude

I've had invitations from a couple of New York knitting groups that meet (or have met)at pubs instead of the more usual Barnes & Noble.

From what I've seen, they tend to be militantly young and contrarian (as in "I don't need no stinkin' gauge swatches!"). I was feeling a bit too granny to follow up, but I'll see if I can find out anything further.

It would be nice to have more of the sort of place that exists in parts of Europe -- local cafe/bars where it's okay to bring the baby while you have a casual meal or a low-key drink with friends. My neighborhood is packed with bars where the objectives are to get sozzled, get loud and hook up. Perhaps knitting-friendly pubs would encourage the more civilized establishments.

Now if Starbucks(which breeds like a rabbit in my neighborhood) were to introduce a micro-brew menu to go with their macro-brewed coffee...

Actually, among the reasons I don't drink is that I make too many mistakes while I knit. Also, I don't like beer, much.

With that being said, my husband and 2 buddies get together a few times a year to sample microbrews and have pizza. I knit while they do it and they make comments (usually approving sounds before off to talk about bicycling, or the latest astronomical information, or some off-knitting topic).

So that's my microbrewery-knitting connection.

"BaaBaa"... I just read an article about a knitting group in New York City that calls itself "Booze & Yarn". The article said they have over 500 members! This sounds like the group that you might be referring to. Their website is Booze & Yarn , in case anyone is curious about them.

My angle will definitely be towards places where it's okay to bring a baby. I like the idea of an "all ages" establishment where you can get a great beer, some good food, and have some good fiber-oriented socializing. Our family has been to a number of good pubs in California. Now the challenge will be to see if we can tweak them a bit so they meet the needs of knitters a bit better.

Your idea about Starbucks serving a microbrewed beer is interesting. As twist on that idea... years ago Redhook Ale Brewery (Seattle, WA) brewed a Double Black Stout that was made with Starbucks coffee. It turns out one of the co-founders of Redhook, Gordon Bowker, was also a co-founder of Starbucks.

"LesleyO"... I have found more and more couples where one is a knitter and the other a homebrewer or microbrew appreciator. Another reason why there's a connection between the two crafts.

Thanks for the replies!
-Jenne