Once, only your granny would knit, sitting in her rocking chair. But now it’s time to get your pearl on writes Sunita Rappai. Knitting is cool

KATE Moss does it. Ex-Spice girl Geri Halliwell has been known to do it. Models at this year’s New York Fashion week were apparently spotted doing a bit of it backstage.
Knitting, once the province of elderly women in rocking chairs, is officially cool – and its popularity has just been cemented by the opening of London’s first knit salon in Cross Street, just off Upper Street in Islington.
Loop, which offers everything from knitting needles to patterns and books, knitted scarves, shrugs and baby clothes, an array of gorgeous yarns and even knitting and crochet lessons for the more ambitious, is a treasure trove for devotees – and an eye-opener for the novice.
Susan Cropper, (pictured) the ebullient 46-year-old former art director who is the brains behind the concept, says she got the idea after taking up knitting five years ago and finding it impossible to find the products she needed.
The Brooklyn-born mother-of-three, now living in Highgate, says: “I was travelling a lot with my job and I started seeing all these gorgeous yarns (what knitters call balls of wool) in shops around the world which I couldn’t find in London.
“At the same time I was going to all these fashion shows and graduate design shows and seeing all these wonderful things made from knit.
“I knew there were all these amazing wools out there but the only place you could find them was on the net. But knitters are pretty tactile people. I wanted to see it and feel it.”
Deciding the time was right for a shop devoted entirely to knitting, Susan decided on hip Islington as the perfect spot for the shop – and Loop was born four weeks ago. Its clean white interior and simple charm reflect Cropper’s background in art design.
“I grew up in Manhattan,” she says, “and when I was very young, my mother dragged me and my brother to all the museums. When we were growing up, she decided to go back to school and do interior design. So I was constantly exposed to art and design.
“I went to school and studied textile design but later I switched to graphic design. In some ways my love of knit is a return to my roots.” Cropper, who says she used to knit with her grandmother when she was very young – “although I never progressed beyond scarves, like so many knitters” – confesses to knitting in bed, sometimes when watching television and often on aeroplanes.
She says she wanted the shop to be “kind of bohemian – homey but in a kind of funky way” – which, I say, is a little like knitting itself.
She agrees. “Part of the resurgence right now is that these young celebs are doing it and if they are doing it it makes it okay and not so fuddy duddy anymore,” she says.
“Also it’s kind of a scary time for people. A lot of people are slightly on edge and they want to do things that are safe and slightly nostalgic and make you relive your childhood – even if that childhood did not really exist. It’s a kind of yearning.”
For the warm and down-to-earth Cropper, there is clearly something about the simplicity of this hobby that particularly appeals.
“You can take it anywhere,” she says. “With just two sticks you can create these incredible things. There’s something really simple and wonderful about that. And I love the fact that it’s not precious. If you make a mistake or don’t like it you can just rip it out and start again.”

• Loop, 41 Cross Street, Islington, N1
Call 020 7288 1160.
www.loop.gb.com.