The Last Knit
When knitting becomes an obsession:
Updates from November, 2006 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Brian Sawyer
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Brian Sawyer
Real Men Knit
There’s a new DVD out that asks and answers the rhetorical question:
If men can cook, garden and change diapers – why can’t they knit?Real Men Knit might change your views on this ancient craft invented by men and will introduce you to a wide range of guys who knit – and are proud of it.
It’s hard to believe it was men that started the knitting craze! Real Men Knit will take you from the past to present, sharing lots of stories of “real” men across North America, who are proud to say they knit.
In addition to a 32-minute documentary, the video also includes a 20-minute knitting lesson (a knitted cap) and two 20-minute interviews with “famous” and “legendary” male knitwear designers.
Check out a brief preview here:
I’m a bit concerned that the tack taken tries too hard to “take back the knit” (my phrase, not theirs), claiming that knitting is actually a domain that rightly belongs to men (and even if it’s true that men invented knitting, it’s clearly women who have “started the knitting craze”), rather than just show that men are equally capable of knitting. I’d like to see more balance. I think the phrase “real men knit” is great, but if the content is really “knitting is really for men,” I think that’s as upsetting as it is foolish.
All that said, the DVD should be fun, even just for seeing young boys, grandfathers, and football players* all talking about knitting.
- Though the football fanatic in the preview clip protests too much. I really don’t want to be grouped with men who need to say things like, “I can still raise hell and shout at the screen during a Packers game and knit at the same time.” What kind of message is that? Real men knit, but real men also don’t need to overcompensate and prove that they’re “real men” by acting like juvenile boors.
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bezzie
Interesting. I had read about this DVD in a different blog. I didn’t realize that it had a reclaimation spin on it.
One might argue that the divide is further perpetuated by the very notion of having to declare that “real men knit.” Any time you highlight the differences in a group of any interest/type, a divide is illustrated and brought to light.
But on the other hand, if you ignore the divide–does it go away and equality is attained? I don’t think that’s true either.
Quite a confuzzlement.
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Brian Sawyer
Good points, bezzie. The way I see it, “real men knit” doesn’t need to be a polarizing phrase. Of course, it could be used, as you say, to highlight gender differences, but it could also highlight similarities by simply meaning “real men knit too,” which is another way of saying, “knitting: it’s not just for ladies.”
I think it would be disingenuous to ignore the divide between genders, which is why I’m happy to see a spin that focuses on the positive aspects of the less-likely gender taking on a particular activity assumed to be dominated by the other. I just don’t want to see this recognition of societal differences used as an argument for further cementing gender roles. Men knitting could be a perfect way to show that “we all can be part of this,” rather than, “this is really ours.”
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Tallulah
No one knows who “invented” knitting, man or woman. Historians aren’t even perfectly clear on how old it is. What a bunch of rubbish in that little synopsis (not yours).
What is known is that during the middle ages, men knitted in guilds, and the craft was controlled by men, i’m sure for economic reasons. Men have certainly had a hand in developing the craft as well as women, but the invention of knitting is lost in time somewhere. There are very few samples of early knitting – but enough to know that it’s older than our records of it…
Too bad they couldn’t explore the history that they do have, without misinforming people.
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Jim
Excuse me… But who says men can’t knit. I learned as a child and have been knitting for years as an adult. “Real men” need to get over themselves.
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lisa
I agree with Jim
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Brian Sawyer
Excuse me… But who says men can’t knit. I learned as a child and have been knitting for years as an adult. “Real men” need to get over themselves.
Hmm. I (as a man who has knitted for years) obviously agree with Jim and Lisa, and I hope that was evident in my post. (Perhaps the “excuse me” wasn’t directed at me?)
Say what you will about the shock value or approach of the DVD, but you’ll certainly have to understand where it’s coming from. Don’t tell me this is the first time you’ve heard someone say that knitting was seen as a women’s hobby?
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Barb
This exchange is really interesting to a person of my age (fifties). In the 80′s there was a book called Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. It humorously poked fun at the masculine stereotype of the “manly man” who ate only meat and potatoes, not “chef’s food.” Of course eating quiche does not make a man effeminate… nor does knitting.
The men who wrote the book Real Men Knit are of an age to remember that book, and I suspect their choice of this title was a reference to that book, its humor, and its premise (behind the tongue-in-cheek humor) that one should do as one pleases and not let stereotypes dictate your behavior.
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Barb
Must amend my response. My thought that Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably (of an age…) compiled the dvd is wrong. They are featured on the dvd. I don’t know the age of those who compiled it.
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Wendy
Right on Barb! That’s exactly what we had in mind when we decided on that title. (I am “of an age” too!) That and the fact that being ‘real’ means you’re being honest which means you’re ok about doing what you want to do without worrying about what others think.
The men in the video who knit are are very ‘real’ and I hope they will help inspire other men to have the courage to follow their convictions.
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Brian Sawyer
Wendy, thanks for stopping by to give what I must assume to be an “official” word from the creators of the video (based on the URL you used in your signature).
If you’d like to send me a copy of the DVD, I’d be happy to give it a more informed review here.
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David not Dave
Sadly, men are so homophobic that we do need someone to tell us that it is okay to like violent sports and knit. I personally, don’t give a damn about sports, but we when I first wanted to get into knitting, I needed proof that “real men” do knit. If it was only done by women and homosexual males, I would be having second thoughts. Yeah, I agree. That is a damn shame. When a pal and I went to Hobby Lobby and asked a sales lady for help, I couldn’t help to think that this lady thought we were a couple. My friend even asked her how many straight men knitted.
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Brian Sawyer
When I’m shopping for knitting supplies, I’m often either implicitly or explicitly confused for a) a clueless husband, shopping for his wife or other female relative or friend, or b) gay.
The first misconception bothers me, but the second doesn’t. While I’m frustrated that knitting is seen as “women’s work” (and for that, I’m just as offended on a general level as I am on a personal one), I don’t really care what people think about my sexuality. That is, I’ll go the extra mile to prove I can actually knit, but I won’t do the same to prove I’m straight.
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Jess
Brian Sawyer, the world needs more straight males like you – who just rest in their own personality and don´t think about what the heteronormative society thinks…
Greetings from a happy GAY (of course) knitting male…
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Blue Broctor
I’m a real man and I just learned to knit as a way to de-stress.
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Melissa
So funny… Brian I have to add another letter of the alphabet to your list – C. for the husband buying yarn for a sweater which will be made for him by his female partner. Apparently it is easier for my partner to spend time there, than me. I consider myself a serious knitter, but have no interest in knitting shop culture.
Barb Sawyer and 
Melissa, 
Blue Broctor, and 9 others are discussing. 
Brian Sawyer
My Knitting Recipe
I recently joined a fun new Flickr group called Knit Recipes, which its founder describes as:
A group for knitters to use to show off the process of creating a knitted object. The basics are simple: for each project you knit, post only ONE photo to the group pool. That photo should be of the completed project. In the description of that photo, put a link to the photoset that contains the in-progress photos of that project.
Here’s the first recipe I’ve posted to the group pool:
And here’s the happy recipient on Christmas 2005:
Glad I documented that project so thoroughly! I’ll try do the same for the one I’ve just started:
But this one’s going a little slower, so, while I’ll post updates when I have them, I can’t promise the complete recipe for a while!
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Creative Artz
Great job! Thanks for all the great pictures. I’ll love seeing pictures of works in progress. The construction process can be so daunting. You do good work.
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Nit One Perl Two
I am so happy I found your site. It appears we have more in common than knitting! I’ll let you know when I complete the “world renound” triple lindee patern!
Brian Sawyer
Finished the Blanket
I finally finished the baby blanket (only six weeks past the deadline I set myself):
For those of you who haven’t kept up with my knitting projects, here’s an archive.
Brian Sawyer
Knitting Update
No, I haven’t stopped knitting since completing that sweater I’m so proud of.
Here’s my latest progress on a baby blanket I’ve been working on (my first attempt at cabling). My deadline is actually approaching quickly, so I plan on having it finished by the end of the month.
For those of you who haven’t kept up with my knitting projects, here’s an archive.
Brian Sawyer
Finished the Sweater
I finally did it. I finished my sweater:
Not bad for my first sweater, if I do say so myself. I’m quite pleased indeed.
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Beth
I love the sweater. It looks great!
Brian Sawyer
Knitting Update
Just finished the back of “The Manly Sweater” from Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook. It’s supposed to look like this:
With the colors I’ve chosen, the back looks like this:
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Beth
I love the sweater colors they will look great on you.
Brian Sawyer
Stitchin’ & Bitchin’
In the blog devoted to her new book, Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook, Debbie Stoller mentions “Rock-and-Roll Knitters,” an article in this week’s Newsweek:
When Debbie Stoller, the feminist author and cofounder of Bust magazine, became obsessed with knitting in 1999, friends and even strangers responded with disbelief and occasionally disdain. “If I had been learning karate, they would have said, ‘You go, girl, that’s so feminist of you,” says Stoller, 41. She realized that “the only reason knitting had such a bad rap was because it had traditionally been done by women.”So Stoller, determined to “take back the knit,” founded a weekly “Stitch ‘N Bitch” club in her Manhattan neighborhood, drawing women who want to knit like a granny but without the orthopedic shoes. Soon spinoff groups formed in Chicago and Los Angeles. “The only knitting group I could find before was called the Windy City Knitting Guild, and they meet in a library,” says Brenda Janish, a Web designer from Chicago’s North Side. “I’m sure they’re great women but they weren’t really the people I wanted to hang out with.”
Inspired by the righteous chicks with sticks who came to her meetings, Stoller compiled “Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook” (Workman Publishing), a step-by-step guide for making a cell-phone cozy or a punk-rock backpack. Already in its fifth printing, the book is organized around playful chapter headings like “Pointers: What You Need to Know About Needles,” and supplies funky patterns for a skull-and-crossbones sweater and a Wonder Woman bikini. (There is also a pattern for an heirloom-quality “big bad baby blanket,” which would go nicely with the “umbilical-cord hat.”)
New Stitch ‘N Bitch clubs are cropping up wherever women yearn for a menage a trois–Stoller’s name for the vital three-needle bind-off technique. Last week at an East Village cafe called Knit New York, the Stitch ‘N Bitchers knitted and purled to the beat of synthetic punk music and traded multicolored hanks of angora, alpaca, mohair and even possum yarn. “When I learned to knit, yarns were just rough,” said Carrie Brenner, a 31-year-old who works on Wall Street. “They weren’t sexy and urban and hip.” Stoller, surrounded by young women using the tools of the past to create new forms of self-expression, wore a fire-engine red scarf of silk and mohair, streaked with fuchsia. “Crafting is the new rock and roll, baby,” Stoller says. And this time the girls are leading the band.
Okay, so the girls are leading the band. But what about the men? Can we play too? My next project, this sweater, is from Stoller’s book:
Brian Sawyer
Knitting Update
If you’ve patiently awaited my promised update of my knitting page, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve finally brought it up to date. The new page includes shots of all the projects I gave as gifts this holiday season, as well as my current project. Here’s the sock I’m working on now:
Brian Sawyer
Crafty Christmas
Happy new year, everyone! As promised, this first post of the new year is to share some of the crafty things I gave as gifts this holiday season.
I’ve set up a knitting page (which is still incomplete, but I intend to update it soon), and I’ve also prepared a photo essay that documents the handbinding of one of the books I made:
Hope you enjoy!
Barb Sawyer 4:12 pm on November 8, 2006 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Obsession is the right adjective… watch out for those scissors….. There may be more knitters out there in need of an intervention. Thanks for sharing.
Brian Sawyer 4:15 pm on November 8, 2006 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Actually, obsession is a noun, but I get your point.
Barb Sawyer 7:47 pm on November 8, 2006 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Yup. Actually, I wrote “talk about obsessive behavior,” and continued with a paragraph that was way too long. Cut it out and took a different and abbreviated route. Should have proofed it… Especially before sending it to an editor. Oops. That is not a complete sentence. And so it goes….