Boy Meets Purl

 
Say what you will about boys who like knitting, because Josh Bennett has heard them all. “Women in yarn stores would ask me if I knew how to knit. When I replied ‘Yes,’ they would say, ‘But you’re a boy!’” That’s why the 28-year-old Hell’s Kitchen resident created Boy Meets Purl (BoyMeetsPurl.com), a resource for guys (and girls) who knit. “There wasn’t anything out there. So instead of complaining about it, I decided I would start designing my own knitwear and patterns.” Little did Josh know that by sharing his new designs online he would launch a whole new career for himself. “I started to get clients that believed in the same knitting philosophy that I [did],” he explains. “Eventually I started designing for magazines like Vogue Knitting and made Boy Meets Purl my full-time job.”
 
The website features images and patterns for his original handcrafted garments, which include sweaters, hoodies and jackets. They look more like they came off the rack at Urban Outfitters instead of the shelf in mom’s hobby room. And the exposure from the website has even landed him the attention of local celebrities, including the most recent Project Runway winner, Irina Shabayeva. “I am working on [her] collection for Fashion Week,” he boasts. —Benjamin Solomon