Meet Who Makes Knit Happen

Graphic by Allie Wicks.

Northwestern School of Communication senior Lily Feinberg had no intention of becoming a “knitfluencer.” In fact, she got all tied up in the craft completely by chance. Now nearly 25,000 people follow @knithappens__ on Instagram to discover what the self-proclaimed “yarn baller” has created as of late, and there’s a lot to see.

In her junior year of high school, Feinberg left her school, which had nearly 2,000 students, in Montclair, New Jersey for Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, a semester school on the Maine coast. While there, Feinberg and her 40 other classmates lived without phones or electricity for four months. Knitting was one of the first things she learned, and it quickly became a valued source of entertainment in the absence of screens. She and her classmates knitted during classes and meals, and by the end of her time at Chewonki, she had mastered the knit and purl stitches.

“I came home and I totally brought knitting back with me and loved it,” Feinberg says. “It was one of those things that I was most excited to bring home from this experience.”

The closest yarn store from her house was 30 minutes away. Feinberg used to convince her parents to drive her. There, she would stock up on yarn for the next couple of projects, which were only hats and scarves at that point. But resuming regular life did not easily lend itself to the kind of knitting she was used to at Chewonki. She had gotten her phone back, and all the distractions that come with it. Plus, the more traditional, Montclair High School has a no-knitting-in-class policy.  Although she always had a new project in the works, knitting fell to the backburner, especially during her first couple years at Northwestern.

Then the pandemic hit.

Like many of us, Feinberg found herself bored, anxious and stir crazy. A chronic nail-biter, she took her mom’s advice to get back into knitting in order to keep her hands busy. “I just needed something to be passionate about and learn to enjoy again that wasn’t just watching TV,” Feinberg says.

Knitting is widely recognized as having positive mental health benefits. Its consistent rhythm — slide in, wrap, cast off, repeat — releases serotonin, which reduces depression and anxiety. During the pandemic, Feinberg embraced knitting as a relief from the mounting paranoia and chaos. Soon, she started sharing her creations with her close friends.

“I still remember I sent a picture to my friends on my private Snapchat story and I was like, ‘Oh my god, maybe I should start a knitting Instagram account.’ It was kind of a joke.”

Eager to hone her craft while attending virtual school, Feinberg started taking classes three times a week at Close Knit, a cozy yarn store on Orrington Avenue. that recently closed after 20 years in business. She credits the two women who ran the store, Lucy and Christine, for teaching her 90% of what she knows now. “At that point, I didn't know how to read a pattern, I didn't know how to really do anything by myself, and they entirely helped me do that,” Feinberg says.

With a new routine and new skills, Feinberg could focus on making @knithappens__ happen. She started by branching out from following just her close friends to connecting with people who enjoy knitting as much as she does To her surprise, there were thousands of accounts to engage with. “I would spend hours every single day just scrolling through my feed and looking at what other people were making,” Feinberg says. After knitting her first sweater in fall of 2020, Feinberg was off to the races.

Image courtesy of @knithappens__ .

With smiling pictures of friends sporting their knit crop tops, her grandma snuggled up underneath a chunky blanket and her brother in his forest green birthday sweater: @knithappens__ became, quite literally, the gift that keeps on giving. “I would say that pretty much anyone who is remotely close to me in my life owns something that I have knit for them,” Feinberg says. She took over 150 custom orders last year and posted many of them to her feed.

“There's something that's really, really special about making something for someone that you're really close to and the experience of pouring yourself into a project and making something that is so specific and unique to them,” Feinberg says.

A year ago, she had 5,000 followers. This April, she reached 10,000. Knitting companies like Wool and the Gang, Cascade Yarns and We Are Knitters began sending her yarn and patterns to try out. By May, her followers more than doubled. But above all the success that she’s found, Feinberg is most proud of the community she has found through her account.

“I think that knitting is such a tacit activity, it’s something that is meant to be done physically and in front of another person. Even though it's a solitary activity, it is something that I think lends itself so well to breeding community.”

Despite her undeniable skill, Feinberg remains humble. “I'm always really scared that I'm going to teach my friends to knit and they're going to realize how easy it is and it's not going to be cool for me to be doing it anymore,” she jokes. 

@knithappens__ is a social media success story: a shining and perhaps rare example of likes, comments, follows and DMs working in tandem to breed nothing but positivity. When she’s stumped by a pattern or needs a recommendation for new yarn, there are always fellow knitters willing to lend a hand. 

“I'll (post) like ‘having a really anxious day, doing some knitting’ and I'll get hundreds of replies that are just so loving and so warm,'' Feinberg says. Next year, she’s working to build online communities in the community management space  — a role she feels well suited for given her experience managing her account. 

The colorful feed reflects her unbridled enthusiasm for the craft, and each caption reads as a love letter to knitting. After Northwestern, Feinberg has no plans of logging out of @knithappens__. And I must say, Instagram is better for it.