Music & clubs

Knitting makes you thirsty

Spin a scarf, hat, or a yarn after a few drinks at Berlin's French-imported StrickenBar. Women and men alike are not shy about their appreciation of the entwined arts.

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Photo by Janina Gallert

Next time you walk past the systM Bar on Torstraße, listen carefully: you might hear the delicate tinkling of knitting needles. A couple of times every month, a small society of knitting devotees gathers here. They talk and laugh, filling and refilling their drinks and working away at their colourful creations as the yarn balls slowly dance across the wooden floor.

In spite of the pale blue-grey light, the atmosphere is cosy. Blink twice and you’ll swear you’re curled up under the glow of grandma’s hearth. Maybe it’s the yarn.

An outpost of Paris-based knitting collective Collectif France Tricot, StrickenBar was imported by French natives Oryanne Dufour and Emmanuelle Esther when the latter moved to Berlin around a year ago. After changing locations a few times (the summer was spent at Jacki Terrasse), the girls settled on Mitte’s systM Bar.

Knitting is free and if you happen to be a yarn virgin, they will even help you get started. They even provide the wool which is paid for by some mysterious sponsor and the money they make through various knitting projects – like working for designers or Esther’s online knitwear shop.

And since, as the saying goes, Stricken macht durstig (knitting makes you thirsty), there’s the bar to quench your needs whether you’d rather knit over coffee, tea or a dry martini. And contrary to ‘knitting circle’ stereotypes, StrickenBar is no estrogen-fest. Real men know how to get domestic.

StrickenBar | www.c-f-t.net

For dates visit www.facebook.com/strickenbar