The Mayo News

Sandra Kearney claims she is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of knitting, a contnention we wouldn’t challenge.
SPLASH OF COLOUR Sandra Kearney in her shop, Fusion. Pic: John O’Grady             

Knitting – it’s the new yoga

Áine Ryan

SANDRA KEARNEY claims she is the Arnold Schwarzeneger of knitting. And this writer certainly wouldn’t challenge her contention. Just check out the muscles on the back of those knuckles. Put it like this, the Ballina business woman wouldn’t need to resort to her knitting needles as weapons of mass destruction!
Last week Sandra told The Mayo News that she knitted her first jumper when she was eight. It was pink, had a round neck and the stitches were all plain. Over three decades later, Mayo’s knitting guru has sold her garments all over the world, from Dublin to London to New York. She has exhibited at the annual RDS Showcase, the country’s premier craft, gift, fashion and interiors fair.
“My grandmother and mother were fantastic knitters and, of course, I learned how to knit at school. I always hated knitting socks though, turning that heel. Give me a jumper any day!” said Sandra.
You could say that the chronology of Sandra’s business life directly reflects the trends in the broader knitting industry over the years. She opened her first shop 18 years ago on Garden Street, Ballina. Called Sandra’s Wool Store, it provided a broad range of wools, patterns and needles, as well as a knitting-to-order service.
“I used to knit and design my own knitwear and, at one stage, employed up to 36 knitters. By the mid-nineties hand-knitting was being taken over by manufactured knitwear which was more efficient and could be sold more cheaply,” she said.
As a result, Sandra was forced to diversify and by 1995 she was also selling clothes and handmade jewellery in her new premises on O’Rahilly Street.
“Then, later, when we set up here first [at Fusion] in 2003, I decided I wouldn’t sell knitwear and wool but people still asked and persisted in calling it Sandra’s,” added Sandra.
Fusion is an Aladdin’s cave of quirky bric-a-brac including jewellery, incense, quirky delph, knitwear and arty lampshades. It also has a tiny room to the rear filled with a multi-coloured pot-pourri of wools.
“Since many celebrities say that knitting is the new yoga, there has been quite a resurgence in it. It has also become easier. It’s not such hard work anymore with textured yarn, which has the coloured variants in it,  and, of course, bamboo knitting needles rather than the old steel ones,” explained Sandra to The Mayo News. 
“All you have to do now is cast on and keep knitting. It’s so relaxing.”
Each winter Sandra runs knitting classes for groups of women. The classes are usually composed of around six people, who have varying degrees of proficiency. She is available to hold these master classes all over Mayo and Sligo. By all accounts, if you prefer chilling while plaining and purling rather than posturing with asanas and pranayama, knitting is the new yoga.
“I had learned how to knit at school, just plain and purl, like we all did back then. I graduated to doing Fairisle stitches and Swiss darning by attending Sandra’s classes. I find it very relaxing during the winter evenings, and have even taken to knitting those feathered scarves,”  said Teresa O’Doherty (53) from Kilglass, Enniscrone, County Sligo.

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