Then a hush fell over the group. They had assumed the position: eyes down, hands together.

If it weren't for the knitting needles, you'd think they were in prayer.

Wednesday was the monthly gathering of the Stitch 'n Bitch group, which brings together — you could say in fellowship — missionaries in the church of knit.

Kae Kiehm, of 'Aina Haina, sees similarities of her knitting circle ... well, barring the name ... to houses of worship.

M.K. Carroll of Makaha knitted a carrier for her iPod during a recent gathering of Stitch 'n Bitch at Mocha Java in Ward Centre. The group brings together fellow knitters who have gotten hooked on the craft. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

We all know knitting has gotten huge: The Knitting Guild Association estimates 53 million people in the nation can knit or crochet, a 51 percent increase from a decade ago. And a Craft Yarn Council of America poll found that from 2002 to 2004, there was a 150 percent increase among women ages 25 to 34 who picked up knitting.

Young women today have been returning to the craft of their grandmothers in droves, a drive steered in some part by Debbie Stoller's 2000 book, "Stitch 'n Bitch" (paperback, Workman Publishing), and fueled even further by "Stitch 'n Bitch Nation" in 2003.

Knitters young and old say there's even a place in that nation here in the warm climes of Hawai'i, if you lose the heavy wool and instead pick up cotton yarn. And no matter where you go, handbags, beanies, knitted bikinis and light scarves will be in fashion.

One of the hottest thing these days, notes Sue Keola at Isle Knit, are ponchos — like the one Martha Stewart made famous when she cashed in her "get out of jail" card.

"Knitting got me on the spiritual path," Kiehm said.

These days, the next generation is heralding knitting's meditative properties by taking up prayer shawls, books like "Zen and the Art of Knitting" and "Mindful Knitting," and acts of charity, such as making "chemo caps" and infant hats for hospitals.

"It's a giving craft," said Kathi Palmer, one of the "rockers who knit" (she was in the local band Obsidian in the '80s and '90s).

Kiehm, 32, has fibromyalgia, a musculoskeletal pain disorder. She finds knitting helps her get through the interminable wait at doctors' offices. One book she picks up when the pain gets her down is "The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice," by Susan Gordon Lydon (Bantam).

The Oakland, Calif., columnist and author found knitting after breaking her arm. Knitting, she learned, helped her strengthen her hands, and later, got her through cancer diagnoses.

Lydon is now on medical leave, but she took some time out to talk about knitting's new arrival into the spiritual realm.

However, she said, as the legion of kniterati grows, "people now have access to that big inner world, which is a big world."

Lydon tells the story of one of her friends, a woman who works for a bank, whom she doesn't consider spiritual.

"I asked her, 'Do you think it's hokum?' She said, 'When I start to knit, I go from being in a very small room to being in a very big room,' " Lydon said.

She says she's somewhat Buddhist: "I know how to meditate. I'm in a meditation school. It occurred to me that what I wanted to do all the time was knit. When I thought about it, knitting got me to the same place internally that meditation did."

It transcends boundaries, said Kiehm, "bridges all religions."

These Stitch 'n Bitch members come from a variety of faith backgrounds, though Angela Ni says hers may be more like an addiction than affiliation.

"I totally zone out," said Ni, in her 20s, who admits to getting her younger brother hooked.

Kae Kiehm, left, of 'Aina Haina, and M.K. Carroll chatted while knitting at the monthly Stitch 'n Bitch gathering. Members come from a variety of backgrounds and have several works in progress. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"You can call me a Buddhist," said the Makaha resident, 30.

The trio talked about how, when they have more challenging projects, knitting may not seem nearly as spiritual. But then they take up something calming. That's why there's several works in progress here. For example, Kiehm, the lifelong knitter, has a delicate, lace-work shawl. And Ni is making a cherry blossom scarf of her own design.

Besides her iPod carrier, Carroll has made a knitted representation of a womb, which she'll send to Wombs on Washington, a "pro-choice crafting group" created by a feminist knitter who, according to its Web site (wombsonwashington.org), expressed her frustrations with the conservative Supreme Court.

What's next? Knitting as politics?