(no subject)

[camwyn]

So I started knitting a cat bed to felt for Shula (or whatever cat I'm going to adopt) on my way down to the beach last Thursday, as something to do on the train. Finished the knitting a few nights ago. Didn't have the quarters to do two hot water washes until yesterday. It's finally been felted- after covering the inside of the washing machine with so much blue lint that I felt honor-bound to get in there and swipe it all out two or three times over. I had to wrap my wok in plastic and then a bath towel to get something round that was large enough for effective blocking. The bed's drying out now.

Understand, Shula normally sleeps wherever he damn well feels like, and I doubt he'll change his mind for this. I did this mostly because I plan to adopt from Bide-a-Wee, and the cats there have beds in their cages, and I'd like to make sure that whoever gets adopted has at least something comfortable- that or Shula has something to move into when the new cat decides his sleeping spaces look like fun. It's also been a while since I did any knitting in general, and a project that amounted to 'knit big yarn on big needles in circles that you don't have to pay much attention to' seemed like a good place to start getting back into the hobby. I like to balance out computer learning with low-tech stuff, too. When I took my county college courses to get into the Kean master's program in MIS, I was taking one computer class and one cooking class per semester for my sanity's sake. Knitting balances out Cisco, more or less. I'll be knitting for humans soon enough, as I've got more yarn than I intended and I have the urge to do some fingerless gloves up for hands much smaller than mine, not to mention that my nephew saw me working on the cat bed and persistently asked to knit a scarf of his own. He's five and a half. I'm gonna get him a nice size 11 or larger circ (so he doesn't lose one needle or drop too many stitches off the wrong end) and a skein or two of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick to teach him on, and I'm going to find whatever documentation I can on historical Scandinavian knitting done by guys because his parents worry at times about gender roles and it's hard to beat Vikings for manly.

yeah, I know, it was more the Viking women doing the knitting than the men, but I have to start somewhere, and I don't think the rehabilitative programs where modern day male prisoners knit toys and small blankets for hospitalized children are the best example of manly men knitting. People get weird about words like 'prisoner' no matter what the guys are doing or why. And I already heard my sister objecting to Rosey Grier being held up as an example of a manly guy doing a womanly craft. Mom tried that one on her, and it didn't take. If my nephew were skilled enough to do color or pattern knitting I would have him work on something with Godzilla in it, but he's still so young that he hasn't quite figured out if he's left-handed or ambidextrous or what...

I personally don't see anything particularly wrong with a kid his age learning to do something that comes across as girly, but then I was given a copy of the Free To Be... You And Me record when I was about five, and that kind of thing does a good job of stomping on gender roles. And it's not as if I'm exactly known for being much good at social conceptions of the female gender anyway. When my nephew and his sister are older I'll see about things like model rockets and archery sets for both of them and then I suspect his parents will beg me to stick to teaching him to knit.

Anyway. I was going to say that once I get home tonight and verify that the cat bed's dry I'll take some pictures of it. The only picture I thought to take of the work in progress pre-felting is here, and most of it's under the cat anyway. Alas. Next time, perhaps.

Comments

[antepathy.livejournal.com]

Shula is adorable! One of my cats (Bo) prefers sleeping in the bin of socks I've knitted. I guess he's like...pre-furring them or something?

Knitting's plenty manly. The medieval knitting guilds were Men Only, and they prided themselves on knitting the finest, laciest, most complex stuff.

You might also look at Gansey/Guernsey stuff for manly knitting. Sailors often had a lot of free time on their hands.

My parents both knit--my dad learned back on the farm, because Nana Dean pointed out that a man needs to be able to darn his own socks rather than rely on someone else. (Ah, Nana Dean, your proto-feminism touches me so!) So he learned knitting, sewing, embroidery, and cooking as well as more 'manly' farm chores like gutting chickens. MUCH better that than one guy I met in grad school who thought I was amazing because I...sewed a button on his favorite jacket for him.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

To be fair, medieval guilds were pretty much Men Only With Rare Exceptions anyway, no matter what the craft ;)

[antepathy.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily true. Brewers had more than their share of females and I think dyers as well. Only the knitting guild really had a major issue with going out of their way to exclude females, esp once the notion of the Blessed Virgin knitting took hold.

[derien.livejournal.com]

it's hard to beat Vikings for manly.

Ha, good thinking. :)

Five and a half years old, yeah, not time for the rockets quite yet. But he's old enough to do the baking-soda-and-vinegar powered boat! :)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Traditionally, Middle Eastern shepherds knitted. There you are, out there alone with the sheep, not much to do unless a critter that needs running off shows up--you need something useful and portable to do. It gives me a whole new angle on the part of the Nativity story where the angel appears to the shepherds--talk about having a reason to drop stitches!

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

and I'm going to find whatever documentation I can on historical Scandinavian knitting done by guys because his parents worry at times about gender roles and it's hard to beat Vikings for manly. Hee.

I vaguely remember learning that knitting was started by men, who knit nets to trap fish or something.

And OMG Free to Be You and Me! Yes. It's alright to cry! William wants a doll!

Ah, memories...

[gramarye1971]

IIRC, soldiers who were recovering in hospitals during World War II and previous conflicts were taught to knit hats and scarves and gloves and balaclavas, partly as a war effort thing but also as a way to keep from being bored out of their skulls. Not quite the same thing as prisoners, but it's a thought.

[genarti]

You are totally the cool aunt. I'm just saying.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

However, according to /A History of Hand Knitting/ by Richard Rutt, knitting, insofar as we can track by archaeological finds and artistic depictions, didn't make it to Scandinavia until several centuries after the Viking Era.

"Net" and "knit" both derive fairly recently from "knot", and could be used interchangeably, given spelling and dialect of the time. When Shakespeare writes that sleep can "knit up the ravelled sleeve of care", it's probable he meant "knot", as knitting would only just have come to England by then.

Further confusion can also arise from the fact that archaeologists deemed most any not-strictly-woven artifact as being "knit", regardless of which craft produced it: sprang, netting, nålbinding, crochet, or knitting. Fish netting would be a particularly poor use of knitting, given how poorly a knit fabric performs when a strand fails--perhaps the other commentor is thinking of nålbinding, which is more closely related to netting, doesn't fail when a component strand breaks, and is occasionally (if incorrectly) referred to as "knotless netting" or "knotless knitting".

There were all-male knitting knitting guilds in France, but soon after they started being French and quit being Franks and Normans, they lost some of that Manly Man reputation.

For Manly Man-Knitting Wot Is Knit by Manly Men, check out that samurai. Knitting was adopted there fairly late, but was taken as either "a delicate art that a well-bred man should employ", or "a way to make a buck", depending on one's family's fortunes, fairly late in the period.

...

Good lords and ladies, I just Hermione'd all over the page. I hope this helps!

-- Lorrie knows too much about European fiber arts.

[camwyn]

Aw, poot. So much for the vikings. Well, I'll see what I can do about the samurai, then. Maybe if I get my nephew into Nerf swords and screaming KIAIIIII a lot it'll go over well.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I think there's also a lot of knitting done by Manly Men in South America.

[(Anonymous)]

Fuzzy boooy.

And yes, men knitting is not anything that's out of gender roles. I'll do the research soon enough.

[batyatoon]

I know it's important to respect parents' wishes about things like gender roles, but I still want to shake parents who insist on imposing said roles on their kids. Le sigh.

Also Gen is right: you are totally the cool aunt.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

I personally don't see anything particularly wrong with a kid his age learning to do something that comes across as girly, but then I was given a copy of the Free To Be... You And Me record when I was about five, and that kind of thing does a good job of stomping on gender roles. And it's not as if I'm exactly known for being much good at social conceptions of the female gender anyway. When my nephew and his sister are older I'll see about things like model rockets and archery sets for both of them and then I suspect his parents will beg me to stick to teaching him to knit.

BWAHAHAHA <3

[camwyn]

I already bought them the riding animatronic dinosaur (it doesn't walk but it brays and moves its head, eyes, and tail), the drum set, and the remote controlled doodahs. (My nephew got R2 D2, as he expressed a liking for Star Wars. My niece got a pink My First RC Car because I didn't want to leave her out. she also got a set of Galactic Heroes mini-Star Wars figs that had a girl Jedi in it because my nephew had said Star Wars was for boys and my mother had to tell him that I liked Star Wars despite not being a boy myself.) The rocketry is only a matter of time.