1Q-2010 Men’s Knit-Along
So last Thursday night, a friend and I joined a men's Knit-Along (KAL) online. The project is the "Indoor Felted Boot" from Cat Bordhi's "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles", sized-up to fit a guy's foot.
This project is cool for me in several ways… I'd like to learn to knit socks, and this is basically a fluffy sock that then gets felted, so minor mistakes get covered up. Not wanting to learn a technique that requires buying two circular needles, I learned the "magic-loop" technique that lets me do it on one circular. I get to participate in my first KAL, and I get to work on a project with another local guy who knits that I've been wanting to know better.
I picked a new yarn that had recently come in at Twist, and later discovered that it is self-striping and basically meant for felted slippers. It's a little pricey (I need $24 worth), but it is coming out pretty neat so far.
If you have a Ravelry account, this is what I'm knitting. And this is my project page.
The KAL is here. (on Google Groups). The organizer has made it private, and there was a deadline for joining, but I joined well after the deadline, and the project has just gotten started and is set to move pretty slowly, to be friendly to beginners.
We'd love to have more Wichita men participate, and you don't have to join the online group to particpate locally.
Knitting again
Oh, you didn't know I knit before? Heh.
So a few years ago (I'm unclear on the time, I want to say "a couple," but thinking about it, it's more like three or four), I decided to try knitting. I like practical hobbies, and knitting is inexpensive and very portable. So I practiced a bit, knit one chunky scarf for my son, got busy and put it in a box to await the matching hat.
But "busy" wasn't the full reason I stopped. A big part of it was the thing that makes people wonder why I even started: I'm a guy. And as this was about the point I realized that I'm looking for social hobbies, I found a local knitting circle. And, as expected (here on the edge of the Bible belt, at least), they were all women. I was a little uncomfortable being the only guy in a group full of women. They were welcoming, none of them ever looked at me funny, but it was awkward, 'cause I'm not "just one of the girls," but conversation carried on as if I were. Not that I'm a prude or anything, but I just don't relate to conversation about boobs and periods and how men never do anything around the house. (And, lady, your boobs look just fine in that sweater. I'm not seeing anything to complain about.)
A couple years ago, a nifty yarn shop (Twist) opened up near my house in the Delano neighborhood, and just going in and looking at all the pretty yarn (the wife gave me an excuse to go) made me want to knit again. But that wasn't enough… still that "only guy" problem telling me "you won't stick with it."
Recently, I discovered there was another guy hanging out at Twist, and through the net I discovered we had a lot of common interests. So I decided to make the trek to Twist and meet him, and I've taken the craft back up. And I just discovered the "eclectic guy" I know from church also knits at Twist. So, three guys knitting at Twist… it must be a movement!
The first order of business was to dig out that scarf… I'd finished all but the fringe, so I added the fringe and gave it to my son just as the weather turned rather cold. He's named it "rainbow", and I'll post pictures soon.
Right now, I'm practicing again, getting ready to knit a hat. My first work with purling and on circular needles, the practice started out a little awkward. But I think I've practiced enough, so I bit the bullet and cast on some sweet baby alpaca yarn and start the real hat at last night's Stitch'n'Bitch at Twist. It went a lot smoother than the practice work I was doing, too. And there wasn't any bitching about men who don't do anything around the house.