Quiet no more, knitters demand respect

On a Saturday this month, as one group marched through Boston's streets in support of gay pride, a smaller but equally hardy band came together in Cambridge to declare a love that dare not speak its name: the love of yarn.

Call it Knitting Pride, and while the activity has drawn increasing attention over the last few years, it has generally remained an isolated, private one.

Organizers of the second annual World Wide Knit in Public Day, including Danielle Landes of Los Angeles, want to change all that. The vision, said Landes on her website: ``hundreds of knitters doing the exact same thing at the same time."

There was no such mob scene locally, but when Boston-area organizer Guido Stein set up shop at the appointed 11 a.m. hour under the overhang at the Harvard Square Au Bon Pain, he was eventually joined by six other like-minded souls.

Patience Boyd of Cambridge wore the event's official T-shirt, complete with its logo of a sheep standing on a yarn-wrapped globe waving a ``Hide No More" flag.

And the knitters, said Stein, are out there, reflected in an ``online knitting community that's growing in leaps and bounds." Groups took part in Hong Kong; Talinn, Estonia; Paris; and Yukon, Canada.

Many of the Cambridge attendees participate in ``knitalongs," working on one project at the same time as other people around the world. Nearly all post pictures of their ``finished objects" on blogs. Stein publicized the event via his podcast ``It's a Purl, Man," that has fans, he says, as far away as Australia and Thailand.

Perhaps there they had better weather than the 50-odd-degree chill in the People's Republic. Still, the Boston/Cambridge group stuck it out for several hours, unfazed. Perhaps their wool kept them warm. Ariel Altaras of Brighton, 24, and Alanna Nelson , 42, stayed until nearly 2:30.

Boyd stacked two giant cones of yarn for a shawl on a cafe table. Altaras worked on her 13 th pair of socks of 2006 . Stein had a baby ``surprise" sweater in beige, pink, and green; Cambridge resident Jordan Bach , 31, a large felted satchel.

The yarn and patterns piled on the table seemed to claim: ``This space for knitters!"

The industrious group drew plenty of attention, especially since it included -- gasp! -- men. Stein, Bach, and Alasdair Post-Quinn of Waltham, 29, are all part of the fledgling Knitting Gentlemen of Boston (KGB), a group that knits twice monthly at Dado Tea in Harvard Square.

In fact, many knitting groups meet in cafés and bookstores. Altaras, who attends four klatches per week, declined to give the location of her Brookline group since the space can't handle many more people. She often knits during her T commute to and from work, as does Stein.

With all this quotidian public knitting activity, why do Boston knitters need a pride day?

Despite their openness, they said, they remain in the shadows. ``No one pays attention," lamented Bach, even when he has ``some beautiful sock yarn." Post-Quinn said that ``for the most part, people either don't notice me or don't say anything."

Altaras agreed, though once two boys wearing Spiderman costumes asked her questions on the T.

Emily Coombs of Arlington, 23, hoped that the Saturday group would draw more queries than each member attracts alone. Bach agreed: For him, the day's purpose was ``evangelism!"

The gregarious Stein indeed tried to ``convert" Marcia Fouraker at the next table, who was visiting from Nebraska. ``I would love to learn to knit," she said, admiring the knitters' work. Stein said he wished he'd brought ``a beginner set of needles and some extra yarn." (He gives out cards he made to get the curious started.)

On the other side of the table, Clarence Mah of Somerville, 36, was intrigued. He thought that knitting might be part of the trend that has brought artisanal bread and fair-trade coffee. Still, jibing with the knitters' typical experience, most people passed under their umbrellas with nary a curious glance.

Despite the colorful yarn, flashing needles, and chatter, neighboring nosher Jeff Snyder of Cambridge said, ``I didn't notice it that much."

But perhaps the knitters' awareness campaign will take off, and the day become known to all. ``It's only a matter of time," said Post-Quinn, ``before it's a federal holiday."