Lily Chin Click photo for larger image.

Lily Chin is the closest thing to needle-arts superstar that you're likely to find, and it's not because she once crocheted a gold and silver bikini for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

A writer for magazines and an author of several books, she helps designers Isaac Mizrahi, Vera Wang and Ralph Lauren develop knitwear lines. She designs her own patterns and is marketing a new line of yarn with her name on it.

The busy knitter will be appearing Friday and Saturday at the second annual Pittsburgh Knitting Festival at the Parkway Center Mall. There she'll be signing books and teaching several classes.

Sorry, none of the classes will involve a crocheted bikini.

Ms. Chin has been a well-known and sometimes controversial figure in yarn circles, but it wasn't until she successfully defended her title as the World's Fastest Crocheter in 2004 that she landed squarely in the mainstream. She appeared on "Late Show With David Letterman," where she crocheted him a whole sweater by the time the show was over.

		Festival stitches together knitting topics The Second Pittsburgh Knitting Festival will be held at the Parkway Center Mall near Green Tree, 1:30 to 9 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets cost $15 per day, or $25 for a two-day icket. Events include a variety of classes, including a how-to-knit demonstration and weaving and spinning demonstrations. Twenty-nine vendors from across the country will be selling the latest yarns, patterns, designs and fun stuff through the festival. Guest instructors include Diane Stewart, Shannon Okey and Lily Chin. Also, former Pittsburgh Steeler Randy Grossman, husband of event festival organizer Barbara Grossman, will be available to sign autographs noon to 1 p.m. Saturday. Child care with knitting-related crafts will be provided by The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh Friday and Saturday for $5 per hour, with a $2 fee for craft supplies. Proceeds benefit the Waldorf School on the South Side and the Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health in the Strip District. Lunch on Saturday is sponsored by Whole Foods of East Liberty. For details, call 412-417-4305.

She's been capitalizing on that publicity ever since. On March 5, she'll be hosting a television special called "Stitchcraft" on Oxygen at 3 p.m., which may be expanded into a series.

Of course, Ms. Chin didn't plan on being a professional needlework whiz, but, as she said recently in a phone interview from her home in New York City: "What else do you do with a liberal arts education?"

She's been knitting since age 8, when her mom taught her as a way to keep her busy.

"She only taught me the bare bones; she never told me how to purl; I did miles of garter stitch and got bored and chucked it all."

So, out of sheer frustration, she says with a laugh, her mom introduced her to crochet.

"I took to [crochet] like a duck takes to water. I crocheted constantly, but at about the age of 13, I got back to knitting. I was determined to master it."

Instructing herself from how-to books she bought at the dime store, she mastered both crafts. And she went one step further: She began designing clothes, applying the skills she learned in the sweat shops in the Chinatown garment district, where she worked after school and during the summer.

She also started working with designers, whom she says always want something yesterday.

"When working with designers, we collaborate, but it's mostly their vision, and I have to find ways to meet their ideas. In fact, very few [designers] know how to knit, crochet or sew. For them it's only about the concepts and ideas; they don't care how it gets done."

Ms. Chin gets it done for them -- usually in two or three days. She gives the sample to the designer, who then sends it to China to be reproduced, sans printed instruction.

In recognition of these skills, garnered from 25 years in the business, Vogue Knitting dubbed her a "Master Knitter." "There is no technique I can't tackle, just from doing it for so long," she says. "Doing it and thinking about it."

And she's glad that the needle arts are catching on in a big way.

"All of a sudden it became hip and cool," she says. "Some of the celebrities made it very trendy. We are all so stressed in our modern-day life, we need something to relax. It's the new yoga."

Ms. Chin is taking this opportunity to market her own line of yarn. "I'm the first American designer to do so," she says. "I was tired of people from Europe coming into our market and selling their lines of yarn."

The Lily Chin Signature Collection, which includes 11 yarns, each named for a neighborhood or part of New York City, sells for $6 to $8 a skein and is available in stores and on the Web. You can view the samples at www. lilychinsignaturecollection. com.

She also has a book due out in the fall called "Couture Crochet Workshop: Mastering Fit, Fashion and Finesse" (Interweave Press), which takes high-end designer garments and translates them for the hand crocheter.

Surprisingly, says Ms. Chin, she does more crochet for the couture garments she helps design than knitting. And she won't say which she prefers, saying it's akin to asking a mother which child is her favorite. She is passionate about both and says she's happy to be able to pass her obsession along to others.

"I pass it along to everyone I can reach, I am constantly trying to drum up converts. I do it in a public way, but on a personal level."

Lily Chin will meet the public and sign books 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the festival and 12:30 to 2 p.m. Saturday; She will also teach three classes: "Alternative Closers" 2:30 p.m. Friday; "Shaping Up With Short Rows," 9:30 a.m. Saturday; "Borderline Personalities: On the Edge," 2 p.m. Saturday. At press time, limited space in the classes was still available; check at the door for openings. Class fee: $50 per class.