WHILE most holidaymakers would pack the latest blockbuster to read by the pool, Trisha Brant stuffed some yarn and knitting needles into her beach bag.

“There we were, sitting in the heat, me knitting a pair of socks and my 17-year-old daughter a floppy hat,” says Trisha, still tanned after her family holiday to Spain.

Unusual, perhaps, but understandable too. Trisha is the woman helping to revive our long lost love affair with knitting.

Four years ago, she opened Poppy’s knitting supplies shop in Pocklington. This summer, she opened a second outlet in York, on Colliergate.

The business is booming not only because it sells the latest patterns and yarns which enthusiasts travel miles to lay their hands on, but also because it offers tuition for all levels of knitters, from the beginner to the experienced.

The paint has hardly dried in the York shop, but already Trisha has a programme of workshops for autumn and winter.

In a new move, she will be bringing in tutors from top yarn and design company Rowan to lead the workshops. Sessions include learning Fairisle techniques to create a pair of funky mittens and instruction on how to knit lace.

Places are filling up already for the day course on finishing techniques, where seasoned knitters can learn the secrets of finishing off a garment with a professional flourish.

She also hopes to run a course for kids at half term and one for beginners in the New Year.

Trisha, 48, was taught to knit as a child by her grandmother, but says anyone can pick up the hobby at any age.

“It’s not very difficult, there are just four things you need to learn: to cast on, to cast off, the knit stitch and the pearl stitch. If you can do all of that, you can do anything – you just need a bit of confidence.”

It’s a good idea to start a small project and build from there. “Start with a scarf, then a bag and before you know it you are doing anything you want to,” says Trisha.

Perhaps surprisingly, a considerable amount of men are among these have-a-goers. Male knitters, observes Trisha, seem to prefer cross-stitching or patterns that are very complicated and require lots of counting and precision. “There tends to be two types of male knitters, the older man who was taught in the forces and the younger man who has looked it up on YouTube and wants to have a go.”

It’s estimated almost half a million men are interested in knitting or sewing, according to the UK Hand Knitting Association.

But men still have some way to go to match the popularity of knitting among women. The UKHKA estimates some four million women in the UK are into knitting and sewing.

Mum of four Lynn Sloss is one of those. She travelled from Ripon to York to buy wool. She had spotted a picture of a knitted bag in a magazine and wanted to make it for herself. In Poppy’s, she found the pattern for the bag and the perfect combination of coloured wools. She reckoned she could have the bag finished in an evening or two.

“I probably knit every day,” says Lynn. “If I sit down on a night in front of the TV, I’ll do some knitting. I knit everything; socks, shawls, jumpers.”

Lynn believes the resurgence of interest in knitting has been helped along by designers and celebrities. “Crochet and knitting is going to be big this season,” she says. “A couple of designers had crochet in their catwalk collections and there’s lots of it in the knitting magazines.”

The economic climate is playing a hand, too. “Knitting has a nostalgia about it. In a recession, people look for something that is comforting.”

And knitting your own fashion is a guaranteed way to stand out from the crowd. “It creates something unique, rather than going into a shop and seeing racks of the same clothes on the shelves,” says Lynn.

For the keen knitter who perhaps is looking for a project, Trisha has several ideas. She is asking customers to knit woollen hats for soldiers in Afghanistan.

“We use a standard pattern; people can pick up a photocopy of it from the shop. It’s a pull-on hat, but it has to be in dark colours – for obvious reasons. Either black, navy, brown or khaki.”

Customers are also knitting six-inch squares which Trisha and her staff stitch into large blankets in aid of Oxfam’s relief efforts in Pakistan.

“This is a perfect project for people who like to knit but don’t know what to make. It takes about 90 squares to make a blanket, which is a lot for one person to do,” says Trisha.

It’s part of a long tradition of people knitting for good causes, such as premature baby units, says Trisha.

More knitters are needed for a current project, she says, to cover York’s historic walls in a ribbon of pink scarves.

The project, Knit The York Wall, is the brainchild of Haxby fundraiser Rachel Speight, who aims to collect enough pink scarves to encircle the historic route.

She needs some 2,832 scarves, measuring 150cm by 15cm, to cover the two-and-a-half-mile length of the walls.

Her goal is to raise awareness of Cancer Research UK’s Join The Fight For Women’s Survival campaign, before selling off the scarves to raise £5,000 for the charity.

Trisha says: “It’s nice for people to give something back.”

• For more information about Rowan Knitting Workshops at Poppy’s, call into the shop at 11 Colliergate or phone 01904 270927.

• Find out more about the Knit The Wall challenge at donatetobreastcancer.org/rawknit-the-york-wall