Yes, Men Knit, and It’s Not Even Shocking

This may be the first time ever I’ve seen a story about men knitting in a major publication that didn’t have the tone of “What? Men can knit?”

This piece from the Wall Street Journal is about a men’s knitting group formed as part of the summer knitting group at Bryant Park in New York City (there’s been a knitting meetup there every Tuesday through the summer, and today is the last one). It’s sponsored by Knitty City, and owner Pearl Chin said she thought it was important to reach out to male knitters because women knit everywhere and often in groups while the guys tend to knit solo.

It’s a really lovely story, and the video shows several of the men sharing their knitting stories and what they get out of it. One knit his child booties for years, while another picked it up as a creative outlet at the side of his mother, a seamstress.

The story but not the video includes Jared Flood, aka Brooklyn Tweed, who says he’s still a relatively solitary knitter because “I think for men who are knitting, there’s such a stigma with it still,” he said.

I hope more nice stories like this will remind people who don’t knit that it’s perfectly normal and a wonderful use of your time, no matter who you are.

[Photo by Natalie Keyssar for the Wall Street Journal.]

Next Pattern:

Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?