Baking and knitting draws students to WI
Young women across the UK are joining the Women's Institute to learn old crafts such as jam-making and knitting.
Making jam, darning and flower-arranging sound like the pastimes of a 70-year-old grandmother, not a young woman in her twenties.
Yet across the UK, the Women's Institute (WI) has seen a surge in membership from students and twenty-somethings, keen to learn the age-old skills of cross-stitching and cake-making.
Following on from the success of the sewing associations known as Stitch 'n Bitch clubs, it appears that young women are in search of activities which do not revolve around night-clubs.
Over the past five years urban WIs have been set up in cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, where the Buns and Roses WI meets in a cocktail bar every month to learn crafts from gift-wrapping to baking.
The opening of Goldsmiths WI, the first in a university, earlier this year also sparked a trend for student WIs, with a network forming which includes King's College London, Newcastle, Sheffield and Birmingham.
Speaking about the increased interest from students, Ruth Bond, chair of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI), said: "Students are under increasing pressure these days to have additional skills as well as their degree, and the WI offers women the chance to learn new skills that they wouldn't normally have access to."
India Volkers, president of Goldsmiths WI, agrees, pointing out that starting a WI has meant that she and her friends are able to learn useful practical skills from knitting to beginner's Japanese.
Even celebrities are embracing traditional pursuits - Geri Halliwell and Kimberly Stewart have both been pictured knitting.
Last month, the Daily Mail reported that sales of wool are up almost 30 per cent compared to last year.
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Comments
I have just had a baby and my 90 yr old grandmother has knitted him the most gorgeous jackets, hats, bootees an blankets. I am so glad that he has something she made for him and they are more lovely than anything we could have bought in the shops. I would certainly like to learn these skills (she taught me when I was a child but I've sadly forgotten how to over the years) so that in due course I could do the same for my grand or great-grand children.