Lolita Hobbies: Knitting

Painting by Johan Georg Meyer

In my mind, the perfect Lolita hobby should be something portable, something that looks elegant, and something that you can use to add to your wardrobe no matter what your style preference is. Knitting accomplishes all of this and more.

Knitting is insanely portable, especially if you stick to knitting small pieces for when you are out and about. Sure, you can't stick knitting in the pocket of your jeans when you go out, but you can fit it into a little coordinating bag to stick inside of your purse. It also gives you something to do when you are waiting in lines or waiting for an appointment. Even better, if you only stick with accessories, by the time winter comes around you will already have enough mix-and-match pieces to add warm winter charm to any outfit.

You can also choose from a multitude of yarns in just about any color to knit with. There are fine wool yarns to big bulky yarns perfect for quick last-minute accessories. The material can also vary from wool to angora rabbit to silk to cashmere. There are even yarn shops out there like Habu Textiles that specialize in carrying interesting yarn blends like wool/stainless steel or even silk/stainless steel and, ribbon yarns, and yarn made out of paper.

Leftie by Martina Behm

Knitting is a really easy way to add accessories to your outfit and customize them to fit your likes and needs. You can even add main pieces to your outfits like jackets or warm blouses to wear during the winter months.

The Leftie pattern by Martina Behm is a great example of what you can do with knitting. It is a little scarf that is knit all in one stitch and takes advantage of small pops of color against a white background. The way it is shown in the picture with red, pink, and brown against a background of white would be perfect to go with a Sweet Lolita coordinate.

But imagine it with dark purple, light purple, and a little bit of royal blue against a black background for a little bit of flair to stand with a Gothic Lolita coordinate. Or a lemon yellow, mint green, and orange against a light brown for a fun hint of springtime flowers for a Classic Lolita coordinate.

Bonnie Birds from Knitting Knee-Highs

Now take it one step further. In Lolita one of the staples of the wardrobe would be the knee-high socks. Every so often you will find an adorable pair of socks that may fit perfectly on your feet, but your calves are just too big and the stretched fabric make your legs look like sausages. Or you might get it big enough to fit your legs, but that leaves fabric flopping off of your foot because the feet are now too big for your feet. One of the big advantages to knitting is that not only can you make socks, but you can make socks to fit your body perfectly. No more sausage legs and no more longer than normal feet. Only a perfect pair of socks knit in any color to match your outfits perfectly.

Even better, there are some patterns that even try to help with the slipping sock syndrome. The Bonnie Birds pattern in Knitting Knee-Highs comes with directions on how to knit a garter directly into your socks as a design element that comes with an advantage of helping your socks stay up. The book also comes with directions on how to turn any sock into a knee-high sock so if you run across a pattern that you love but it isn't a knee-high sock pattern, you can turn it into a pair of knee-highs. You can also mix and match elements from one sock into others.

 As I said before, knitting is a perfect combination of portability and customization that will allow you to make pieces that coordinate perfectly to your sense of style. You just have to remember that all knitting happens one stitch at a time and that you are the boss of your knitting.