more on knitting (from the WSJ)

Really serious knitting, that is...and the origins of an interesting little niche market!

I've blogged on knitting three times previously: a scientist comparing it to religion, quilting in Paducah, and another WSJ article on competitive knitting...

Here's the latest from Robert Tomsho in the WSJ...

When Susan Gibbs launched her Internet wool and yarn business last fall, she was afraid nobody would notice.

These days, the self-taught shepherd has shareholders and an online following. Emailers she has never met help name her sheep and goats. The fleece from her Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm is sold months before it's sheared....

She discovered the passionate world of 21st-century knitting, a quirky realm that is growing fast, with help from the Internet. About 53 million American women knew how to knit and crochet in 2004, up from 35 million a decade earlier, according to a recent study by the Craft Yarn Council of America.

For many in this new generation of knitters, any old yarn won't do. Some eco-minded knitters sell yarn made from unraveled thrift-shop sweaters. Aiming to reduce fuel consumption, other knitters lobby their fellows to avoid using yarn produced more than 100 miles from their homes. Zealous about using only natural fibers -- and knowing precisely where they come from -- some buy their yarn from individual shepherds or travel to the British Isles, Scandinavia and other countries to examine fleece while it is still on the animals....

She came up with a twist on so-called "community supported agriculture," or CSA, a form of alternative financing more commonly used by produce growers. In return for an upfront investment that helps cover planting costs and reduces the growers' risk, CSA participants get a share of the crop....

When interest in buying the shares slumped, Ms. Gibbs offered to give one away. Bloggers spread the word, and within a few days, more than 750 yarn enthusiasts had entered the drawing, which was won by a Seattle teacher.

By New Year's Day, all 100 shares for the spring 2008 harvest were gone and Ms. Gibbs began selling interests in this fall's shearing, a mohair affair that will feature her Angora goats. So far, shareholders have invested about $20,000 in the Fiber Farm, which also sells yarn from earlier shearings online and at local farmers' markets....

Ms. Gibbs offered her shareholders online updates. She talked about herself, her work and her animals, sometimes posting pictures of young goats butting heads with chickens or leaping from hay bales. Calling themselves the "groupies group," some shareholders set up a fan club on Ravelry.com, a knitting Web site. They discussed their own lives, knitting and Ms. Gibbs....