Knitting has a bad reputation: it's boring, it's uncool, it's just for old people ... and why bother knitting when it's a dying art anyway?
Yet for many women - and some men - knitting is fun. It's a soothing, meditative art form, a creative craft, a way of making friends, a community good, and a way of connecting with family history.
In recent years knitting has taken on a more hip persona, with the release of books such as Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N' Bitch - which later spawned a worldwide network of knitting groups - "celebrity knitters" such as the Yarn Harlot [aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee], and a range of stylish new knitted patterns available.
And it seems, there are plenty of knitters in Wanganui - and they're not just grandmas.
Kelly Scarrow is arguably Wanganui's most high-profile knitter. Author of the popular Inked Librarian column and founder of the Gonville Library knitting group, Kelly's exuberant style and tattooed skin defies the "knitting grandma" image.
Kelly has been knitting since she was four years old and can't imagine life without it. So obsessed with knitting was she as a child that she was paid balls of wool instead of pocket money.
"My dad would buy me two balls of wool from Garney Spooner Woolshop if I'd been a good girl that week."
For Kelly, knitting is interlaced with memories of her mother, who died when Kelly was seven years old.
"My mum was a very, very prolific knitter and I have strong memories of her knitting. Everywhere she went, the knitting bag went, and there was always the clicking of the needles.
"A strong love of knitting was something that she instilled in me at a very young age."
Kelly knitted her first jersey when she was just eight years old.
"My mum wasn't around then but her best friend is a prolific knitter. She lived just a few doors down from us so she would help me out. All of my mum's friends knitted, and with my mum's passing I spent a lot of time with them to have some strong women in my life. They really nurtured me in my love of knitting."
These days Kelly knits mostly for gifts or as part of the Gonville Library knitting group's benefit drives.
She says she feels a "real connection" to her mother when she knits: "I do have a sense of her when I'm knitting."
Now Kelly is getting ready to pass on her mother's knowledge to her own children.
"My daughter will be 10 this year, and my stepdaughter is turning eight, so they'll both be getting needles and wool and some lessons from me. They're both very keen to learn how to knit and I think it will be good for them to learn together."
Few people are more qualified to talk about the state of knitting in Wanganui than Amanda Spooner, the owner of Garney Spooner Woolshop in Guyton St.
Amanda's parents, Gay and John Spooner, started their wool and drycleaning shop 27 years ago, and Amanda has worked there since her teenage years. In March last year she bought the shop from her parents.
"It started off that the drycleaning was the bread and butter and the wool was just a sideline, but now it's known as a woolshop. We're adding to the collection all the time," Amanda says.
Ms Spooner said she has to carefully balance high end and expensive wools for the creative knitters with cheaper wools for those knitting for children or charity.
"There are so many types of wool available these days and a lot of variety of prices. You have to work out how to make it affordable for customers but still have good quality wools."
She said knitting seems to have gone through a sudden revival in the past few years.
"I've noticed there have been a lot of younger knitters and a lot of interest in the more trendy wools. People aren't coming in to buy wool just for a jumper or a hat - although you have still got a lot of people doing that - but there's a lot of really interesting creativity happening too."
The internet has also changed how people knit, Amanda says.
"People will get a pattern from the internet and bring it in to us, asking for advice on what wool to use."
The internet was the tool Frances Stachl used to start a Wanganui knitting group after she moved here from Wellington in 2013.
Her social circle exploded when she discovered popular knitting and crochet website Ravelry, which includes a marketplace, free and purchasable patterns, and online knitting groups and forums.
"A lot of my knitting friends aren't local and I met most of them through Ravelry."
But Frances says there is "something unique" about having a local, in-person knitting group.
"When I moved here I checked on Ravelry to see if there was a knitting group and there wasn't, so I started one," Frances said. That soon became a real life knitting group with weekly meet-ups at Mud Ducks Cafe. A very informal group, the knitters share ideas and patterns, help each other with knitting problems, drink coffee, knit, and chat.
The group includes artists and professional women, mothers and grandmothers, wives and single women.
"Knitting is the connecting thread between us - we don't have a lot in common otherwise," Frances says. "But some of us have been through some hard times and there's always been a quiet support from the group which I think is quite unique."
Frances was an indifferent knitter as a child. But about a decade ago she found herself caring for her aunt, who had dementia. At that stage her aunt - a keen knitter - was still well enough to pick up her needles, so Frances accompanied her to a knitting group.
"A few weeks into it I was told that if I wanted to keep going I had to be knitting."
Frances now teaches knitting. She taught a Continental knitting workshop at the Unwind knitting retreat in Dunedin earlier this year, and will teach the same workshop, along with one on spinning using plastic bags, at Knit August Nights in Napier next month.
Seven year old Sophie Trott shows off her very own floral knitting bag, which contains her little turquoise knitting needles and a ball of red wool. Big sister Bridget, 9, takes out her little pink needles which hold neat rows of pink garter stitch.
Both girls are knitting scarves for their teddy bears, under the watchful eye of their mother, Lucy, who taught them to knit about a year ago. Following a proud tradition among the women of their family, Sophie and Bridget both love knitting.
"If you have nothing to do, you can pick it up and do some knitting," Bridget says. "I like knitting in bed in the morning."
One of Sophie's teachers at St John's Hill School is a keen knitter, and has been encouraging her students to knit.
Sophie says: "It's fun to do in the holidays when it's cold. My dad calls us 'Grandma' when we knit but we're not really."
Lucy is glad her children enjoy knitting, an activity the three of them like to do together.
"It's something for them to do that's better than the television and the iPad. It's keeping their fingers and their brains busy."
Lucy was taught to knit by her mother when she was a similar age to Sophie and Bridget, just as Lucy's mother was taught to knit by her mother. Knitting and crafting was part of Lucy's life from a young age.
"My dad was a sheep farmer and used to breed sheep that produced black wool. I have memories from when I was very little of watching mum wash the wool, card it and spin it, and dad helping to wind the black wool into balls to be sold."
Lucy and all her siblings - including her brothers - were taught to knit or some other practical craft. One of her brothers is still a competent knitter.
For Lucy, it's important that she pass on her family's knowledge to the next generation.
"I remember mum knitting jerseys for us, and as we grew she used to unravel the ends and knit more in. It was a time when things weren't made to be thrown away - everything had a value to it. I want my girls to know about those old-fashioned values, and those old-fashioned skills."