October 29, 2003

Men Who (will) Knit

You hear that sound? The sound of a straight aluminum needle slipping from a beginner's hand, hitting the floor, and rolling away? Yup. I taught someone to knit tonight. Well, started to teach him. Yes, I said him. A guy in my mfa program, younger than the rest of us (23) and kind of goofy in a sweet way, has been fascinated by my knitting all semester long. I offered to teach him and he actually got excited about it. And so tonight we began.

I've taught a few people to knit now, and Rob (that's his name) caught on faster than anyone else yet. Maybe I'm getting better at teaching. Maybe he's a natural. In a half-hour before class he learned long tail cast on and a pretty even knit stitch. I sent him home with garter stitch homework, and depending on how that looks, I'll teach him to purl before class tomorrow.

Our teacher saw us and said, "I LOVE that you guys are knitting. No one's ever managed to teach me how to do it." So of course I offered to try. I'll be getting him started next week. I'm absolutely tickled. I love to see men knit. (No chance in hell that Billy will ever take up the needles, though. Sigh.)

Posted by cari at October 29, 2003 10:51 PM
Comments

Right on! We need more men out there knitting.

Make sure you tell them that it's okay to do it in public. :-)

Posted by: David

COOL! You rock. I wish more men knit as well.
It will be interesting to hear about his progress. Keep us posted.

Posted by: max

Maybe if he knows he'll only get hand knit socks if HE makes them he might.

Posted by: Chris

That's so cool! Good for you and good for him! I catch my husband sneeking little peeks every once in a while to figure out what the heck I'm doing!

Posted by: teresa

Hooray for men who knit! I keep telling Mike that if he really wants to quit smoking I will teach him to knit because it will help...his response is always, "And my yarn would go where now?"

Posted by: Em

The guys at work (all macho and badge-heavy) love to watch me knit. What *I* love to do is offer to teach them. They're such a backwards community, cops. They recoil as if I'm throwing tampons at them.

Posted by: Rachael

And the winner of the Simile of the Day prize is Rachael! I'm howling over that one. My Billy will never knit either. What's up with that? It involves tools that are sharp -- that's guy stuff, right? (I'm kind of joking, but kind of not...)

Posted by: alison

I'm a man who pretty recently learned how to knit. I'm totally addicted, but completely frustrated with the gendered nature of knitting. It's been impossible to find hip patterns for men, let alone a book that doesn't assume me to be a female. Has anyone out there ran into any super cool men's sites/books, free patterns etc? The thought of having to design all my own patterns when all I've made are lots of scarves, hand warmers, and wristbands is too much. Thanks y'all.

Posted by: pope