It's chic to knit and purl with the girls ... and guys

The Dominion Post ^ | 1/16/2004 | George R. Plagenz

[the_devils_advocate_666]

What's wrong with this picture?

A man and a woman are seated next to each other on a plane. She is reading a book, he is knitting.

If you said, ''Men don't knit, women do,'' that's not the right answer. Actually, there is nothing wrong with the picture.

More men are knitting today, including many whose names you will recognize -- such as Roosevelt ''Rosey'' Grier, a former star tackle with the New York Giants pro football team and the Los Angeles Rams; actors Russell Crowe and David Arquette, and Robert Gottlieb, former editor of The New Yorker magazine.

Knitting can also be an aid to your prayer life, some women have found. A few years ago, Chris Pokorny started a knitting/crocheting/sewing ministry at her church, the Edgebrook Evangelic knits hats, scarves, mittens, baby clothes, and other warm things for the needy.

''Every once in a while I will see somebody on the street wearing a hat or scarf that I made,'' Pokorny says. ''It makes me warm all over.''

''The only rule we have,'' Pokorny adds, ''is that we must pray for the person who will receive the item we are working on.''

Not many teenagers knit but it might be good if they did. Young people need to slow down and relax more. But boys are apt to consider knitting sissified.

They ought to meet Grier, the 300-pound, 6-foot-6-inch ex-pro football player of the 1950s and '60s.

Grier was the one who played the memorable role of subduing Sirhan Sirhan on the night of Robert Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles in 1968.

In addition to his autobiography, ''Rosey: An Autobiography: The Gentle Giant'' (Honor Books, 1986), he wrote ''Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men'' (Walker Co, 1973). (Needlepoint is a cousin to knitting and crocheting.) Photographs of Rosey doing needlepoint appeared in the New York Times, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post and on the centerfold of Look magazine.

And nobody would call Grier a sissy. Before Grier became a born-again Christian he had a ''roving eye and a yen for beautiful women.'' That's why, he said, he got into needlepoint. ''It was a handy device for striking up conversations with girls,'' he said.

Boys and young men, take note.

For the rest of us, knitting, needlepoint and crocheting can be a way of not only improving our prayer life and our social life but eliminating the pressures and stresses of 21st-century living. Knit one, purl two.

[Lil'freeper]

Aaaw- how cute! Just as long as they take a break and go outside and play.

[Catspaw]

I knit, have since I was eight, but I'm not a guy.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

My girlfriend had me get her this book for Christmas:

[the_devils_advocate_666]

You want cute, I kinda like this one:

[Tribune7]

"Here. I made this for you."
Sylvester Stallone to Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man (a prophetic movie in many ways.)

[CalKat]

Hey, I got that book for Christmas, too!

[Katya]

Both my children learned to knit in their first grade classroom...small motor coordination and math made easy. Their projects were scarves in multi colored stripes. My son beamed that not only did he finish his scarf first, it was also the longest. BTW...he's a top notch athlete now, playing both Club soccer and engaged in competitive swimming. He also loves the arts and all sorts of handwork.
Boys in particular benefit from reptitive activities that engage their hands and will. Some of my childrens male classmates would have been labeled ADD in public school, where their abundant energy is never refocused.

[BlazingArizona]

Knitting - on a plane? Doesn't knitting require knitting needles?

[GailA]

Must be some far out stuff in it.

I quilt, crochet a little, but never took to knitting.

[jrp]

My grandma taught me to knit/crochet or some such thing. It was fun, but I've long since forgotten how.

[yhwhsman]

Well, not a knitter, but really enjoy cross-stitchin'.

[little jeremiah]

Is there any way I can get any sock patterns? I'm taking up knitting after many years...

PS I saw a photo years ago of about two dozen Hawaiian policemen sitting in two rows, with knitting sturdily in hands. These men looked to be averaging way over 6 feet tall and at least 250 pounds. The opposite of sissies. It was circa WWI, they may have been doing some kind of war effort.

[Cacique]

What I want to know is how the guy managed to get those knitting needles aboard the damm plane. Where the hell was security? I bet I could hijack a plane with a pair of knitting needles.

[kingu]

*ping* Sock patterns needed, isle one. STAT!

(there's a reason why I call her my better half, and no, it's not just for her incredible researching skills.)

[CajunConservative]

LOL- not all quilters are little old ladies. :) Here are a couple male quilters that come to mind:

John Flynn- an engineer even.

Kaffe Fassett

and Ricky Timms- who doesn't seem to have anything on the web- < silly gushing voice > but he's in all the magazines. < /silliness >

I saw John Flynn at the International Quilt Show in Houston this year. He was demonstrating his quilting frame. I was really surprised at how many men were there. They were feverishly buying for their stash too.

[Ladypixel]

Yup - I /am/ the better half. And I'm crocheting tonight, rather than knitting... but only 'til I finish this scarf, and then it's back to socks.

You wanted sock patterns, you got 'em - but be forewarned that this first site I'm mentioning tends to get really busy at times, and overloads its bandwidth, primarily because it's got over four hundred free sock patterns on it. (Besides, Homestead tends to be notorious for locking down high-bandwidth-usage sites. Bah.)

Sock Pattern Page (over four hundred patterns)

In the meantime, since that site's already past today's bandwidth usage, check out some of these patterns...

You're Putting Me On Socks (a toe-up pattern)

Universal Sock Pattern

World War II socks (old Red Cross patterns - historical and comfy!)

Easy tube socks (this one's my favorite at the moment)

Joan's Socks (This one's sometimes considered one of the easiest beginner patterns online, although I think the tube socks are easier.)

And finally, the Perl sock program, in which you can enter dimensions and a few other little important facts (needle size, type of yarn) and get a custom-made, instant sock pattern to your specifications.

Need more than that? Freepmail me, I'll pass along more. :)

[Ladypixel]

Ah, but knitting needles are allowed on most flights in the continental US now. Admittedly, they prefer birch or bamboo needles on planes, rather than the metal ones...

[discostu]

If you were really old fashioned you'd respect self sufficiency. A college kid out on their own and poor (what's college without poverty) is gonna survive the winter a little better if he can make his own scarf and hat. It's just knitting, a good way to keep idle hands from becoming the devils play thing and could be a good way to make some scratch on the side.

Oh, and knitting needles don't have eyes, even I know that even though the only time I've picked up a pair I grabbed them more like Van Helsing than Rosey Grier (who is a very nice guy BTW).

[SuziQ]

Hmmm. Does he quilt fractals?