Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — While trends on social media come and go, the so-called “grandma hobbies” have been having a moment among Gen-Zers for a while now.
Things like baking, pottery and especially fiber arts — knitting, crocheting and sewing — have been revived among 20-somethings, fueled in-part by the COVID-19 pandemic. That popularity is exhibited in tremendous fashion at the monthly Somerville Stitch Club meetups, a gathering space for people who want to work with their hands, and meet new people while they do.
Co-founders Jaime Boag and Isabelle Nicolas told WBZ NewsRadio they created the club in December and it has been a big hit within the community ever since.
“This is the second month we’ve done [it] with pre-registration,” Boag said. “Both months have sold out in six minutes.”
There are only 50 tickets available each month, enough to completely fill a basement room of the Somerville Public Library's West Branch. Boag and Nicolas said the waiting list each month is more than a hundred people long, and people will set alarms on their phones just to remind them when the preregistration opens.
“We’ve been super surprised, in a good way, on how many people one, know how to craft and two, want to be here,” Nicolas said.
Boag noted that there’s been a major shift among young people who want to disconnect from screens and are “ready to make friends the ‘old-fashion way’.” A recent study that surveyed more than 2,000 Americans found that 63% of Gen Z are proactively finding ways to digitally unplug, more likely than millennials and other generations.
“People want to talk to people in person, make friends, make things with their hands,” Boag continued. The club has become a low-pressure place for people to connect with their community.
“I know that there are people here who work in office all day or who work from home, and this is sort of their outlet,” Nicolas said.
With the demand for more entries to the club, the duo is looking to expand Somerville Stitch Club meetups to bigger spaces and outdoors as the weather warms up, hoping to bring more people into the community they made.
“Crafting and fiber arts are an extremely accessible hobby,” Boag said. “There’s so many things you can do with it, and it’s not staring at your phone, and you can do it literally anywhere.”
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.