Monday, October 4, 2010

Knitting Things We Don't Like

It's kinda the whole subtext of my book, Knits Men Want. Even if you find it boring to knit, so plain, so monochromatic, if he wants it, knit it anyway. Well, as a male knitter, I rarely have a chance to knit for women-folk - usually doing up oversized sweaters for me and Mark. Or thick warm socks for hiking boots or wearing in front of the fire. Knitting thick and bulky has become ingrained in me. Lace? Not likely.

And I've always said that sock yarn is for sissies. No man wants to wear thin little hand-knit socks knitted out of what looks like dental floss (albeit colorful dental floss) on toothpicks.

Then at dinner last week, in a moment of supreme generosity and love - brought on by my true admiration of my friends Rich and Faye along with bottle of incredible Cabernet, I promised them each a pair of hand knit socks. Rich will be easy. As a guy and he'll love a pair of bulky warm socks. Faye, on the other hand, is very feminine and only a sleek, sexy but funky pair of socks are going to do.

As you probably guessed, I don't keep much sock yarn in my stash, so I traded half a dozen skeins of Rowan SilkKid Haze for some Claudia Hand Painted fingering to knit Faye's socks. If you haven't used Ravelry to search other people's stash and swap things around, you don't know what you're missing.




Am I looking forward to using 2s (if my gauge swatch lets me, 1s if I must)? Absolutely not. But I push my students to try something new all the time. And I encourage every woman who complains that her man only likes bulky boring and dark things to give up the colorful yarn and tiny needles for a while.

I'll get a taste of my own medicine over these socks, but I expect that I'll be better knitter and a better friend when I'm done.


6 comments:

  1. You'll probably come to love it, as I have come to love knitting the bulky boring dark mens sweaters ;-)

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  2. I'll keep you posted and put up pics when i'm done!

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  3. Greater love hath no knitter....

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  4. As a male sock knitter I try to stay to stay away from anything smaller than DK. My advice is be patient, it will be slow going, remember it's the second sock that sucks your will to knit!

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  5. You're going to knit them two-at-a-time, right? To get it over with faster and make sure they're the same?

    Liat
    http://knitfreedom.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-knit-socks-one-or-two-at-a-time.html

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  6. I just picked up the book "Knits Men Want" As a newly retired shop/technology education/computer science and math teacher (Accustom to the arts of metal, wood, Machining, robotics, etc.)and dabbling in glass bead making as well as period clothing for men and as a man your wrote well to guy's thoughts. :-)

    Brad from Oregon

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