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Knitting Takes One Million Hits a Month
Listed under: News
Published: Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Not one to be shy of the media spotlight recently, the knitting phenomenon continues to boom. Each week a new A-list celebrity confesses their love for the needles and yarn, and the last 12 months has seen a revival on an epic scale.
Now it seems that people are so desperate to fulfil their crafty appetite, that they are taking to search engine Google to find out more.
Peter Fitzgerald, a retail director at Google UK, told the Guardian that while online searches for knitting-related terms have grown steadily since 2004, the growth this year has been particularly noticeable. "Our data shows that searches for knitting have increased over 150% just this year," he says. The term "knitting for beginners" have increased by 250%. While other crafts are also gaining momentum, with dress-making taking 100,000 Google enquires a month and sewing at 600,000 requests for knitting have reached more than a million a month.
Sales of yarn in John Lewis haberdasheries are significantly higher than last year: figures for luxury Germany yarn brand Gedifra have risen by 126%, while Rowan yarn is up 57%. Worldwide, Rowan yarn sales have just about doubled.
With these encouraging figures, you cannot underestimate the positive impact that the media have been a helping hand in boosting your sales of yarn. Don't miss out on this opportunity to pull in a new wave of customers by keeping your knitting selection looking tip-top.
We've seen craft make a comeback on prime-time TV, with Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home in 2009, and Penguin books stepping out of its comfort zone and publishing its first knitting book since the 1950s with Jenny Lord's Purls of Wisdom last year.
Advertising has played a part too, with big companies such as Toyota and Vodafone using knitting in their 2010 and 2011 ad campaigns.
And who can forget the huge demand for the royal wedding knitted memorabilia earlier in the year? As royal wedding fever officially hit in April, Fiona Goble's Knit Your Own Royal Wedding book sold a whopping 45,000 copies and outsold in a lot of craft shops around the country.
With all the coverage that knitting has garnered over the last year, more people have jumped on the knit one purl one bandwagon and pledged their allegiance. "This trend really doesn't show any sign of slowing," agrees Adrienne Chandler, deputy editor of leading consumer magazine Let's Knit! "Subscriptions to our magazine have really gone through the roof!"
Read this month's Craft Business magazine for tips on how to capitalise on the newest trend of knitting accessories.
Peter Fitzgerald, a retail director at Google UK, told the Guardian that while online searches for knitting-related terms have grown steadily since 2004, the growth this year has been particularly noticeable. "Our data shows that searches for knitting have increased over 150% just this year," he says. The term "knitting for beginners" have increased by 250%. While other crafts are also gaining momentum, with dress-making taking 100,000 Google enquires a month and sewing at 600,000 requests for knitting have reached more than a million a month.
Sales of yarn in John Lewis haberdasheries are significantly higher than last year: figures for luxury Germany yarn brand Gedifra have risen by 126%, while Rowan yarn is up 57%. Worldwide, Rowan yarn sales have just about doubled.
With these encouraging figures, you cannot underestimate the positive impact that the media have been a helping hand in boosting your sales of yarn. Don't miss out on this opportunity to pull in a new wave of customers by keeping your knitting selection looking tip-top.
We've seen craft make a comeback on prime-time TV, with Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home in 2009, and Penguin books stepping out of its comfort zone and publishing its first knitting book since the 1950s with Jenny Lord's Purls of Wisdom last year.
Advertising has played a part too, with big companies such as Toyota and Vodafone using knitting in their 2010 and 2011 ad campaigns.
And who can forget the huge demand for the royal wedding knitted memorabilia earlier in the year? As royal wedding fever officially hit in April, Fiona Goble's Knit Your Own Royal Wedding book sold a whopping 45,000 copies and outsold in a lot of craft shops around the country.
With all the coverage that knitting has garnered over the last year, more people have jumped on the knit one purl one bandwagon and pledged their allegiance. "This trend really doesn't show any sign of slowing," agrees Adrienne Chandler, deputy editor of leading consumer magazine Let's Knit! "Subscriptions to our magazine have really gone through the roof!"
Read this month's Craft Business magazine for tips on how to capitalise on the newest trend of knitting accessories.
