Guys who knit

The other day, on the Overground train, I looked up to see a chunky fellow in a seat opposite getting on with some knitting. My first thought was "wish I had something to knit right now" and then "hey, you don't see guys knitting on the train very often" - but why not? Why should knitting be seen as gender-bound? It's estimated that 10% of knitters are male.

boys knitting during WWII

The image comes from "K is for knitting" on www.tafalist.com, where you can also the the great little video called "the last knit" - literally a cliff-hanger.

What's more, "K is for knitting" has a link to a blog about the intersection of typography and knitting: http://unionpurl.blogspot.co.uk. The sky's the limit!

(And it goes on to "L is for linen" - but that's making a further diversion from the topic of this post....)

There is an online community of men who knit - http://www.menwhoknit.com/community/ - as well as many blogs of men who are enthusiastic about their knitting. Perhaps my guy would like to have another try? 

The top 10 men in knitting - chosen for various reasons - include Charles Dickens and Uncle Sam. And Lord Raglan (guess what he did).

A quick search turns up lots of (newspaper) stories about men who knit. Here's some knitting lingo from one of them:

Frogging. When you have to fix a mistake, you rip out row after row. You might say, you Rip It, Rip It, which sounds kinda like a frog. Hence the term frogging. You might use it like this: Do you have to frog back 10 rows?

Tink. Not as bad as frogging. When you have to take out a few stitches, one at a time, it's like your knitting backwards, hence t-i-n-k (Get it? Knit, spelled backwards.)

Stash. Your extensive collection of yarn stashed in your house.

Sex. Stands for Stash Enhancement Expedition. Going shopping, with the sole purpose of buying more stash (as in yarn). As in, "I'm going on a sex trip."

Stash diets. When you stop buying so much yarn and make a genuine effort to use up what you already have.