Saturday Knit Live: Super Hot Extended Version

By Vickie Howell

SNL star Will Forte trades in his comedy for a set of needles and a dream…(ok, there really wasn't any dreaming involved, but I felt that the usage of the word added drama.)

Sure, he's a talented writer who's worked on wildly popular sitcoms like That 70's Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun. Yes, he's now in his 4th year as a cast member of the infamous TV comedy institution Saturday Night Live. Ok, he happens to be boyishly good-looking and inherently one of the nicest, most genuine people that I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with. But who cares, really? All of those things are just a drop in the "Mr. Right" bucket, people. More importantly, Will Forte, 35, has done what few men have done before; he's taken the knit.1 challenge and succeeded. He is now, officially, a knitter! (Pause for applause.)

Will and I first met over the summer at a Demetri Martin/Leo Allen stand-up comedy show in Austin, Texas. He was there to lend his support and vocal "talents" (random back-up scatting to the jokes) to the recording of Demetri's first live album. I was there to watch me some comedy. Through a strange series of events we both found ourselves in San Francisco a week later and before the trip's end I challenged him, a relative stranger, to learn how to knit, make a scarf and let me interview him, all over a two week period. With the blessed help of the cocktail Gods, he thankfully agreed. I flew out to his home in Santa Monica, CA and spent an afternoon showing him the knitted ropes. Much to my surprise he not only picked it up quickly, but also really liked it--to the point that when I needed to start the interview I had to tell him, "Please step away from the needles." We agreed to let him knit "just two more rows" before we got started but he really wasn't happy again that day until I released him back to his needles. By the time I needed to catch my plane the next day, he had almost 12 inches of his very first scarf done. He was on his way to vacation in Iceland and promised to work on his project while he was there. Two weeks later we met up again in New York and he had not only finished his scarf, but started a second one. Mama's so proud!

(Santa Monica) VH: I know that when I first came to you with the challenge of learning how to knit for this article, you thought I was joking. Now you seem to be genuinely excited about it. In fact, I had to talk you down from starting with a more complicated project, because you're going to Iceland and I won't be there to help you.

WF: I'm very excited. I'm going to meet your challenge and fight my way through to maybe the most fantastic scarf a first time knitter has ever knitted.

You know, it's actually looking that way. We should point out that you've successfully attempted stripes on your first pass at knitting.

Yes. There's a buzz already about this scarf.

You feel a buzz?

No. Society is buzzing about this scarf.

Reaaallly? I hadn't heard.

Is this the first time you've ventured into craftiness?

No, it's not. Like the knitting realm?

No, just being crafty in general.

No, there actually is stitchery in my past. In elementary school they would teach you how to stitch, so I stitched a bunch of stuff…I really fell in love with it.

You mean, sew?

No, it was like patterns that you would just stitch over.

Like embroidery?

Umm…no, it was "stitchery." It was actually during a time that I was really into cardinals, the bird, so I have a bunch of cardinals that are stitched.

Do you still have them?

I think I do. Wait, I might have one with a sun here [Will leaves the room to look for them and returns with the aforementioned Sun stitchery.] This was my own design. Want to take a picture of me with it?

Ummm, sure. [Ed: sadly, knit.1 is not in possession of this photograph.]

I know your mom (Patti Forte) is a writer and artist. Growing up, did she encourage you and your sister to be creative?

Yes. [My parents] were very supportive about all of our creative endeavors, and they would encourage us to do things that were maybe out of our comfort zone. Like (laughs)…uh…I was kind of forced…well, not forced but somehow I found myself in gymnastic lessons as a kid.

That’s awesome!

Yeah. I just remember wearing these leotards…I don’t remember much, I just remember leotards and some kind of gymnastics recital and my dad came and got kinda mad at my mom (laughs)…and just said, “No more gymnastics for the kid.”

My mom definitely is more of the outwardly creative person [between my parents]. She paints; she writes poetry and tried a screenplay...

You think we could get her knitting?

Yes!

Do you think that there’s any inter-connectedness between different forms of creative expression? For example, given your background as a writer and comedian, do you think that that talent comes from the same place that other ways to express oneself creatively does?

Yeah, I think it all comes from the same place. I think everything is connected. You never know what’s going to unlock different parts of your brain and give you your next idea. I think any kind of an outlet can lead to other ideas.

So, does this feel like a natural or unnatural progression for you to be trying knitting?

Very natural. I think that all roads that I’ve been on in my life have been traveling towards knitting. Like eventually, that’s were I was going to wind up. It’s fate. (I crack a really bad joke about “the road knit traveled.” Will kindly doesn’t walk out of the interview.)

One of the reasons I really wanted you to be a part of “The Man Issue” of knit.1 is because I think it’s so important to show young boys that being creative (whether it’s through writing, performing or knitting) is something to strive towards, not turn against--that there are young, hip, successful men out there like yourself who are completely open to exploring new ways to be creative. There seems to be a certain stigma in this country towards guys showing interest in any craft that stereotypically has been considered “women’s work.” As a guy, do you find that to be true? Are there still these misconceptions?

Yeah, I definitely think that there are still these misconceptions. I think that if a high school kid or junior high kid was to be stitching in the hallways at lunch, he’d catch a lot of shit from his friends.

I’ve read a few articles lately about how male driven knitting groups are beginning to pop-up in High Schools. In fact, some boys say that they’ve taken up knitting because it totally gets chicks--which I think is hilarious.

That’s an awesome way to change it around I mean, yeah, it can be very attractive to a woman [for a man] to be knitting—to be in touch with their feminine side—I mean, if you count knitting as your feminine side…

Do you count being creative as coming from your feminine side?

[Pause] Uhhh…definitely. (laughs)

I have to report that the “post-knitting” Will Forte is HOTTER, dare I say, than the “pre-knitting” Will Forte.

(Laughs) Oh my God, I didn’t know that’s all it would take. I would’ve started knitting a long time ago if I’d known that…but I just didn’t.

Ok Will, you’ve been a knitter for a whole 60 minutes now. How does it feel?

Honestly, I want to get this interview over with so I can hit it again. Like it’s really…I’m a little OCD so, to tear myself away from a project before its completion is very difficult for me; I’m very excited. Through my mind as I’m making this scarf I’m thinking about, you know, I hope someone’s having a baby soon; I could make them some baby booties. I’m getting very excited. Although, I’ll probably just end up knitting little scarves here and there though, because I won’t know how to close off a bootie.

Let’s talk SNL. Why, oh why aren’t there ever any sketches involving the needle arts?

The needle whats?

The needle arts.

Oh, the needle ARTS!

I mean really, why hasn’t knitlarity ensued? Are you all some kind of knitists?

(laughs) Oh my God. This is like a whole new language…a fun language that you’ve happened upon…I am “knit” sure why needle works have not caught on but, now that I’ve been exposed to it, maybe it’ll catch on like wildfire. Maybe there just aren’t any knitters over there [at SNL]. A lot of times you’ll just write stuff based on your own life experiences, so now that knitting’s a part of my life, maybe I’ll get it on the show. Or rather, try and “get knit” on the show. Thank you! HA HA! That’s good knit right there! Ok, now I’ll stop. You’ve started me down a bad road with the knitted puns.

My job is done, then.

Can your fans expect to see you wearing your finished scarf in an upcoming sketch?

Never say never, because believe me I want it to happen so that I can write off the yarn as a business expense…even though you paid for it. But I would say…fat chance.

Ouch!

But I could wear the scarf for “Good nights,” when we mill about on the stage. So the scarf could see some airtime.

You’re best known for several characters: “The Falconer”, faux Senator Tim Calhoun, President Bush and Zell Miller. Out of those four characters, which one do you think would make the best knitter, should they have to face “Will Forte Knitting Challenge?”

I would say that The Falconer would probably be the best knitter because he has a lot of time on his hands—he just sits out there in the forest doing nothing. His problem would be lack of supplies and materials, but… He could actually probably just cut off his beard and use that to knit a scarf with or something.

Check you out, getting all cocky and coming up with your own fibers.

(Laughs) No, no, it’s not me. It’s “The Falconer.”

He’s good. He’s really good.

I hear that fellow cast member Amy Poehler is also a knitter.

Oh, really?

Yup. Is there any chance of you two forming your own knitting group? Like your own little crew. Maybe stop in the middle of writing sessions to do a little knitting…If so, might I suggest the name, “Saturday Knit Live!”

Well, I would say more like, “Saturday Knit Love”! Yes, ummm…those Saturday’s are so crazy and intense and stressful so, it would be nice to have something like knitting to take your mind off it.

(New York)

It’s been 2 weeks since we were in L.A. together. You just got back from Iceland where you successfully finished your first scarf and started a second one.

Yes.

We’ve never covered binding off but you just improv’d and came up with your own method of getting the stitches off of the needles. Would you mind telling me about it?

I tried to bind off the way that it was explained in this magazine article that you had copied for me , but there was one little part that I think I messed up so I just had to uh… I just knitted the crap out of the end of the scarf and made knots everywhere. It doesn’t look bad.

It does not look bad at all!

I made sure that there was no way that the yarn was going to like, go anywhere…

Unravel.

Yes, unravel. That’s a good word for it. The new scarf is going to be even better because I learned from my mistakes. It’s very smooth—a very good looking scarf.

What mistakes did you learn from?

I’m now much better with doing the stripes. I now know how to get the colors changed better. I still need to learn how to blend the stitches in.

What do you mean? Oh, weaving in the ends?

Yeah.

Did you knit on the plane?

No. I’m a nervous flyer so I tend to drug myself and sleep.

But you must’ve spent a significant amount of time in Iceland knitting because you finished a fairly long, man-sized scarf.

It’s probably about 65”-67” long. It’s about my height.

So, when did you knit?

I would knit when people were sitting around. Every once in a while we’d have people over before we went out and I’d sit there knitting…

What were your friends’ reactions? You went on the trip with all guys, right?

Yeah, all guys. Ummm..they were fine with it. They thought I was making good progress. There were some women that were very excited about the fact that I was knitting…

Good. Good.

There were some that were not so excited about the fact that I was knitting.

Some women?

Yeah.

Why?

They just thought it was weird. Actually, it was only one woman.

An Icelandic woman or American woman?

An Icelandic woman. She was like, “What is he doing knitting?!” But then later I think it became something that endeared me to her.

Interesting.

I’m not talking about getting any action or anything…

(Laugh) Thanks for clarifying.

So now that we’ve finished this interview challenge, do you think that you’ll continue knitting?

I definitely do. In fact, I’m gonna try to knit everyone’s Christmas presents this year—my mom and dad and grandma and sister. So, I’m trying to—I would love to knit them all scarves but I might try and learn how to make hats or mittens. That sounds difficult, though.

All right. We can work on that. Hats would be awesome.

Do you think that you’ll teach any of your friends?

Yes. I would teach any friend that had the desire to learn. [I don’t know if they’d want to so] I can’t speak for them. All I know is that it’s been a very exciting past two weeks learning this new hobby and my friends would be CRAZY to not want to learn it—but I can’t force anyone to do anything. Live and let live.

Will, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.

No, thank yooooou.

Check out Vickie Howell and her designs on the new season of Knitty Gritty (airs Monday nights on the DIY Network) and in her first book, New Knits on the Block (available in stores and on BarnesandNoble.com), and see what she’s up to next on vickiehowell.com.