I read every year "The Best Science Fiction of the Year" (Neil Clarke, ed) and "The Best Horror of the Year" (Ellen Datlow, ed). Both of the latest volumes have a story based on knitting!
A good brainteaser would be to guess the plot:
Hints:
SF: disabled spaceship
Horror: small town
Interesting, I did not look them up yet but here are my thoughts:
Sci-Fi: A goddess made of cosmic dust fixes a disabled spaceship when the astronauts (human) manage to give her one skein of light, one skein of space-time, and a set of carbon fiber knitting needles. They continue their journey and she dissolves back into the CMB.
Horror: This might go back to a 19th century novel, where Madame LaFarge was knitting shrouds for the dead in A Tale of Two Cities. A 21st century version might have her doing this still, but the dead are pandemic-zombies now. So, what had been a dreaded sign in Dickens becomes an allegory of hope and modern magic: these shrouds made of spun silver just a few nano meters thick will put them to sleep forever.
Those are good plots, more exotic and probably more interesting than the answers.
Spoiler alert for anybody who might buy the books:
SF: "Knit Three, Save Four" (Marie Vibbert):
Stowaway is discovered on a disabled ship that can't land because the port admin won't give permission. It is worried of damage to the port if their weakened hull should blow. Normally stowaways are tossed into space, but since they are all going to die anyway, they don't. Turns out it is a cargo ship carrying high tension cable, the stowaway is a knitter, and she suggests she can do a spacewalk and knit a "protective cover" for the ship. They live.
Horror: "Split Chain Stitch" (Steve Toase). New small-town resident Rachael decides to join the local knitters circle to meet people and learn gossip. She has never knitted but is a very fast learner and very adept. Turns out most of the gossip is about a local bad boy (burglaries, shoplifting) who has disappeared after making bail. Due to her adeptness, Rachael is invited to the "super-secret" advanced knitters group at a local isolated farm. In reality, Rachael has been keeping notes on the group, due to suspicions about other "bad boy" disappearances. They discover her notes, knit her (through her skin) to a tree, and as the story end, the sheep begin eating her alive.
You were ballpark close on the second one: "zombies" vs. "eaten alive". And "carbon fiber" vs "high tension cable" is pretty close too, esp. given minimal clues.
