Mens knitting challenge

[bobg]

I was watching Mrs BG clacking away making me some leg warmers the other night and rashly asked her to give me a lesson........ it's bloody hard... have any other chaps ever tried it ??

 

[Arch]

I was watching Mrs BG clacking away making me some leg warmers the other night and rashly asked her to give me a lesson........ it's bloody hard... have any other chaps ever tried it ??

I taught a couple of people at an event a couple of weeks back, and one of them was a middle aged chap. He took a fair while to pick it up, but by the end of the day I'd marked him down as academic-but-practically-useless, so it may just have been him.

Teaching people though, reminded me just how hard it is, to start with. Once it becomes natural, you forget how much coordination is required, just to hold the needles without all the stitches dropping off..

 

[vernon]

I was watching Mrs BG clacking away making me some leg warmers the other night and rashly asked her to give me a lesson........ it's bloody hard... have any other chaps ever tried it ??

Not only have I tried it but I taught my wife to knit.

 

[bobg]

Who taught you Vernon??

Bob ( having trouble with his tension....)

 

[bobg]

I taught a couple of people at an event a couple of weeks back, and one of them was a middle aged chap. He took a fair while to pick it up, but by the end of the day I'd marked him down as academic-but-practically-useless, so it may just have been him.

Teaching people though, reminded me just how hard it is, to start with. Once it becomes natural, you forget how much coordination is required, just to hold the needles without all the stitches dropping off..

I was having a pot of tea ( yes I still use a teapot... and a teacosy) with an old Austrian neighbour earlier and she showed me the way she does it... miles easier. Off to knit a Mercian...
BTW its harder than playing the uke Arch...

 

[vernon]

Who taught you Vernon??

Bob ( having trouble with his tension....)

My grandmother taught me.

My tension has nearly always been even apart form the first month or two's learning.

As a child I had aspirations to becoming a terrible knitter but didn't have the pace.

 

[Arch]

I was having a pot of tea ( yes I still use a teapot... and a teacosy) with an old Austrian neighbour earlier and she showed me the way she does it... miles easier. Off to knit a Mercian...
BTW its harder than playing the uke Arch...

I assume you're talking about basic two needle flat knitting, and not double ended pins for socks or anything?

I've not Uked for ages, I must get it out again. But then I have a pair of gloves to get done for my friend's stall. Now gloves - they look terribly complicated, but once you can knit and purl, they are actually quite easy. Actually, once you can do the basics, it's all relatively simple, when you can read the pattern, as it's all just variations on the basic stitches.

I should get the hang of crochet too - I found a knitting magazine in the recyling the other day (well, actually, about 10 magazines) and one of them had some really cute Japanese crochetted animals - there's even a word for them - amigurumi.

 

[surfdude]

never tried in because iam a real man who does not use hard creams or other girly products .now man up !

 

[Black Sheep]

never tried in because iam a real man who does not use hard creams or other girly products .now man up !

Actually, knitting used to be a male dominated cottage industry in the north west many many moons ago.

I can do scarves, knitted my wife one as a present when we were dating, but that's about it - can't read patterns or anything

 

[Aperitif]

Splendid!

One of my heroes.

 

[Jaguar]

You chaps might prefer industrial knitting machines: it's a contact sport (one of our students had to go to ER with a hook wrapped round a vein in her elbow)
Not for softies

 

[Arch]

never tried in because iam a real man who does not use hard creams or other girly products .

Or the shift key, or spelling....

I don't know what's girly about knitting - it's a series of knots (think boy scout, sailing, climbing etc) mounted on two potentially lethal sticks.

Black Sheep - learning to read a pattern is only a case of following a code - and many patterns have the key to the code printed in them anyway. If you can knit, and purl, and increase and decrease, and cast on and off, you can knit a sweater. In fact you don't even need to be able to purl, for garter stitch.

There are of course fancier things, like lace knitting (a sort of controlled stitch dropping), and cable (which is just holding some stitches on another needle while you knit past them, and then knit them afterwards.)

Now, I really must get on with those gloves....

 

[longers]

Splendid!

One of my heroes.

I was looking at his patchwork book a couple of weeks ago, fantastic stuff in there.

We knitted at primary school but I've often thought about learning to darn and repairing some of the pricey walking socks I've got that are down at heel. Still not done owt about it though.

 

[Aperitif]

I was looking at his patchwork book a couple of weeks ago, fantastic stuff in there.

We knitted at primary school but I've often thought about learning to darn and repairing some of the pricey walking socks I've got that are down at heel. Still not done owt about it though.

You darning with feathers? You nit!

 

[661-Pete]

I was taught to knit at primary school. I think it originated as a sort of 'punishment': a) girls outnumbered boys in the class b) in Art lessons boys tended to fool about more than girls c) teacher got a bit peed off. So one day it was "Now, children, we're all going to do some knitting instead. Boys included."

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.

I haven't kept it up...