Mens knitting challenge

[Arch]

Anyway, I got the knack of it, sort of, and produced a foot or two of some amorphous, ragged-looking stuff full of holes. Teacher told me what a good boy I was.

Ah, these days, you'd either frame it as art, or sew it into a tube and call it a lacy snood.

Scarves are a nice easy project, but can get very tedious. I like little things like gloves, toys and baby clothes, because they don't go on for months and months.

 

[E11a]

I'm really impressed with all the knitting and ex-knitting gents out there.

I'm also knitting leg warmers as a toe clip/tuck trouser legs into sock replacement when not wearing lycra.

I was taught to join yarns together by knitting a few stitches or joining them at the start of a row. Just do whatever works for you.

 

[661-Pete]

I think knitting is like riding a bike - you don't really forget it - once you pick up needles and yarn, it all comes back.

I wish that were also true of riding a unicycle...

 

[Speicher]

I admit to not being ready to see men with balls of wool.

 

[ianrauk]

Ah, these days, you'd either frame it as art, or sew it into a tube and call it a lacy snood.

Scarves are a nice easy project, but can get very tedious. I like little things like gloves, toys and baby clothes, because they don't go on for months and months.

Indeed.. Henry loves his Teddy still...

 

[Arch]

Oooh, I'd forgotten about that teddy!

My littlest nephew has a rabbit I knitted him. For a while my older nephew christened it Humpty Dumpty rabbit, but then it became Joe Martin (Martin being their surname). Max gets to cuddle him and suck his ears, but Oli often 'feeds' Joe Martin when Max is getting a feed, or tells people they have to whisper, because Joe Martin is asleep....

 

[Fiona N]

I love knitting - can't watch the telly (or in my case, iplayer on the Mac) without doing something with my hands and knitting engages the brain even if the telly doesn't. Someone told me I'm a subversive knitter. I wasn't sure what that was about until someone else explained that I kind of use traditional methods (Fairisle, Aran, Argyll, Icelandic, intarsia) and let them grow wildly into something else. I think he was thinking of a lovely grey and white argyll sweater that appeared to have had a pot of red paint poured over the wearer's head. On the sweater with lovely neat Fairisle all over the front and 'foliage' all over the back (including back of the arms).

It's actually just that I get bored following patterns - it's just so much more exciting to start knitting without a plan for the pattern / colour / design - the basics for a jersey are pretty straightforward - once you've got that fixed, you can experiment with how you knit. There are loads of really beautiful yarns around now but it's a bit soul destroying just knitting the same yarn backwards and forwards - especially if it's a fine yarn and you've got a 100 stitches or more a side. Much more fun to weave 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6...) colours through or to knit three-D patterns like Arans with cables and bobbles - or cables which turn into dragons


My brother knits too but not quite like this

 

[661-Pete]

This is the way to do it.

Mrs P can knit though she hasn't done any recently: she did a woolly hat for me once. And I think my sister keeps it up.

None can compare with my late mother though, the family champion: she knitted 'continental' style (like the lady on Youtube) and could certainly manage more than one stitch per second - maybe not quite as fast as the champ, but pretty impressive. And the complexity of some of the patterns she knitted - and the amount she did! I still have some of her sweaters. I wish I'd taken a video of her knitting when she was still alive: she could have taught everyone a thing or two! I'm not saying Arch and the rest of you aren't good - some of your piccies on this thread are pretty impressive! - but she'd have left you standing (sorry Arch!).

 

[Arch]

I'll have to take your word for it on the video - ironically, my computer is too slow to show it properly...

I'm sure your mother was a demon for the knitting - my gran was pretty quick, and turned out endless gloves and jumpers. Well, not literally endless, you understand, they would be less than useful, and tend to drag on the ground...

 

[Night Train]

I was taught to knit in Primary 3, it was compulsory for all the boys, can't remember what the girls did. I seem to remember some theory about it strengthening the fingers which would help us hold pencils more firmly thus improving our handwriting. We just did plain stitch and ended up with something resembling an extra long neck tie of randomly varying width.
I always remember that class, the teacher used to shout "I'll murder you boy" when a pupil failed to meet the required standard.

At Primary School were were all expected to knit, and do needlework and cooking, but although the needlework and cooking was taught the knitting ability was expected, like football.

I was never taught how to play football nor how to knit but I got shouted at a lot for not knowing how to do either.

I still don't know how to knit or play football, but only one of them seems to have any usefulness or point(s) in the modern world, so once in a while I do try knitting but still can't get to grips with it.