It Takes One To Know One

I don't know that it has ever come up before, but there is a preponderance of men in my life. Not only am I possessed of a husband, I have 2 sons to 1 daughter. Then there are the 4 brothers to 1 sister, but as I'm not likely to knit for any of them, they don't really come into the equation. Still, I am very aware of the lack of knitting patterns that the men who clutter up my life would actually wear.

The latest in a small but sad collection of such knitting patterns is the Knitting Man(ual).

I can't tell you with what breathlessness I awaited it's arrival. Alas, all in vain. There's not a single pattern that won the approval of my personal resident males. On the rejected list? Vests, hooded or otherwise (my husband apparently cherishes less than fond memories of the day when he had to wear three-piece suits). No two-color stranded knitting, even if paired with a solid yoke and sleeves in a completely different color. The boat-neck sweater? Right out. The men in my life have a sense of style that borders on hide-bound.

It was downright unnerving, the amount of hilarity the book produced. Hence, I felt some significant trepidation about producing the other knitting-for-the-members-of-the-male-persuasion book I'd picked up, Rowan's Knitting for Him.

Imagine my relief when, while the book came in for its fair share of for snarky comments, they were limited to aging hippies/hippie wannabes and their need for haircuts, or at least a working familiarity with their hair brushes and razors, accompanied by repeated renderings, vocal and percussive, of that cartoon classic, "Shave and a haircut, two bits." The patterns were almost uniformly approved. Well, except for anything Argyle or lime green.

Interestingly, the sweaters they liked the best?

Were designed by a man.