Josh Bennett Profiled in New York Times

I don’t really know what to say about this piece about knitwear designer Josh Bennett in the New York Times. I almost feel like it’s just men knitting season (exhibit A: the actually really nice story in the Wall Street Journal about men knitting at Bryant Park) but I don’t want to sound like Bennett isn’t worthy of a profile in the New York Times.

I will say that I hate the headline “Grandma Never Knit Like This.” I hate even more that the executive director of the Craft Yarn Council apparently invoked grandma, when she should know better. And I hate that photo of him knitting but clearly not knitting because that’s nowhere in the universe of how a person knits (and how are there three strands of yarn?).

The story is interesting in that it takes a different view on men knitting. Here’s a man who has had great success designing for big-name fashion designers, but he doesn’t knit in public. He learned to knit at age 8 and fully embraced it for a week until he thought “boys don’t knit” and stopped for 10 years.

It talks of the cattiness of the fashion knitting industry, the way ugliness can spread on the internet, and the idiosyncrasies of one knitter (no hats, socks or unnatural fibers, no sweater for his partner, even though they’ve been together eight years — the sweater curse does not have time limits).

And I think there’s some value to knitting being talked about in “mainstream” media, so I’ll just leave it at that. If you want to know about Bennett’s current fashion obsessions and favorite shows to watch while knitting, check out his list of five, too.

If you read the article I’d love to know what you think.

[Photo by Deidre Schoo, via the New York Times.]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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