Is it wrong for a man to knit for a hobby?

[shannyk]

I’m surprised the overwhelming response is that a man knitting is completely fine…I think it is pretty weird. I would think a man doing most of your typical “michael’s” crafts would be fairly odd…can you seriously imagine a man scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, painting tee-shirts, making wreaths…

Seriously. Watch a football game.

The question was ‘is it wrong’ for a man to knit not do you think it’s weird. If you think it’s odd then that is your prerogative but it really has noting to do with the question.

None of my male friends or relatives give hoot about football. Frankly if I had a husband who didn’t like football I’d consider it a blessing.

And knitting is not a Michael’s craft, it’s an old craft that was historically enjoyed by men and women.

Here is a picture of a Shepard knitting while watching his flock. I guess there wasn’t a game on.

 

[CatholicFireman]

For the record I prefer hockey

And I rarely watch that.

 

[JRKH]

I’m surprised the overwhelming response is that a man knitting is completely fine…I think it is pretty weird. I would think a man doing most of your typical “michael’s” crafts would be fairly odd…can you seriously imagine a man scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, painting tee-shirts, making wreaths…

Seriously. Watch a football game.

What one considers wierd or odd can depend a lot on the family they grow up in.
In my family, Dad did all of the outdoors work but wasn’t above running the vacuum, or cooking. My Mom didn’t really cross over into dad’s domain.
My FIL was a furrier and could sew and do needlepoint as well as furniture making and restoration. But He couldn’t cook.

All of us kids - Boys and girls, learned enough from each of our parents that we can live on our own.

It just depends on what your exposed to.

Seriously is it OK if I knit while we watch the football game?
Seriously - Do I have to watch the football game?


Peace
James

 

[livnlern]

I’m surprised the overwhelming response is that a man knitting is completely fine…I think it is pretty weird. I would think a man doing most of your typical “michael’s” crafts would be fairly odd…can you seriously imagine a man scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, painting tee-shirts, making wreaths…

Seriously. Watch a football game.

CAm, you need to branch out a little. People arent’ meant to fit into little boxes. The world is a big place and the people in it have lots of different ideas and interests.

 

[tapiocapudding]

My DH has a friend who knits chainmail pieces. They’re really something to see.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Gee, Cam, it is a very good thing that you live in AD 2009. If you lived in Europe in the Middle Ages, you’d see men and women knitting. . .but it would only be the men who would be permitted to work as journeymen, apprentices and to become masters of the guilds. I don’t have any good pictures alas but I do remember reading somewhere that a man in order to become a master knitter had to be able to do some really, REALLY intricate work and to be able to knit in ways that would boggle our minds. I mean, when you think that they couldn’t just waltz over to Michael’s for some pre-spun acrylic or organic fibers but had to know how to work with, from ‘scratch’ (and I’ll bet they did) things like flax (to make linen), egyptian cotton, and wool, how to wash, card, and hand spin etc., and then actually do the patterns. . . .and this on top of living in conditions where there were no such things as electricity, indoor plumbing, refrigerators etc. . .AND where epidemics were rampant and one could literally die of getting a splinter (blood poisoning, no antibiotics). . .AND the towns could be overrun by periodic wars or just general looting. . .

You think it’s ‘weird’ to see a man knitting in the U.S. in AD 2009? I can just imagine how many, many things we do, see and say would look ‘weird’ to a man of AD 1309. . .or indeed 1909!!!

 

[Le_Cracquere]

I asked the OP’s question of my dear wife, the knitting enthusiast. Her response?

“Having women crowd around you and hang all over you at the yarn store? Sounds like a funny kind of ‘feminization’ to me. Only sin it might cause is, I’ll have to murder you if you touch my stash.”

Hard to unpack that statement, but the answer sounds kind of like a “no.”

 

[Ridgerunner]

…can you seriously imagine a man scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, painting tee-shirts, making wreaths…

Seriously. Watch a football game.

Whoa! Let’s back up on making wreaths. When my kids were at home, we would go out into the woods near Christmas and cut and gather grapevines; the thin young ones. I would roll and halfway weave them into a wreath between five and six feet in diameter or so. Huge! Being green, they were heavy! The kids and I would then go cut branches of cedar and those red and orange berries that I don’t know what they are, but might be poison for all I know. Clusters of blue juniper berries too. All out in the woods. Then some sprigs of holly from our holly fence. We would stick all that into the wreath and, with great effort, hang it 'way up on our fireplace. Talk about a serious Christmas wreath! But those things are kind of like putting up a 15-20 foot Christmas tree. Takes a grown man to do it. It really does.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ll add this. I once fell off the ladder decorating a 20 foot tree and got a huge hematoma on my forehead for my trouble. Talk about hurt! Swelled one eye shut. And I was supposed to watch a football game to prove my manhood???

 

[shannyk]

I’ll add this. I once fell off the ladder decorating a 20 foot tree and got a huge hematoma on my forehead for my trouble. Talk about hurt! Swelled one eye shut. And I was supposed to watch a football game to prove my manhood???

yes you’re not likely to have any battle scars from sitting in the recliner with queso and chips half the day

 

[Mintaka]

Re: guys and sewing

One of the old things you always saw in superhero comics was that the guys always sewed up their own costumes. (Except Superman, or other people with magical/alien/government-made costumes.) This was such a truism that I never wondered about it.

Later in life, I read an article about the old comics writers and artists. A lot of them grew up in New York’s Garment District. Most of their dads worked as sewers, cutters, tailors, etc., or they knew a lot of men who were. All of them knew how to work a sewing machine and make clothes that fit, starting from a bolt of fabric.

So that’s why Peter Parker could sit down and make himself a spidey suit so quickly.

 

[Aramis]

So this is a lighthearted question, and I’m pretty sure its not morally wrong…but would it be against a man’s masculinity to take up knitting with his wife as a hobby?

I hear about the negative aspects of the “feminization of men” on catholic radio and I was wondering if knitting would fall under that category.

It seems there have been cultural norms that have changed over time, for example cooking might have been seen as a woman’s job, but now a day I don’t think anyone would think it “feminine” for a man to cook. Is knitting just one of those cultural norms that could change or is there something more inherently feminine about it?

I appreciate your thoughts!

I know several priests who crochet and a deacon who knits, sews and crochets. The priests are Dominican Friars. The Deacon’s my dad. I know another Dominican who tats (lacemaking). And two others who do pluck-thread lacemaking.

All of which were men’s work until the 19th century, when automation took over much knitting and lacemaking.

And the priests who benefited from Dad’s largess of knit hats have NO complaints!

Dad makes his own vestments. Most Dominicans have to sew their own habits. Rev. Friar Don Bramble, O.P., did pluck-thread lace-work on his personal surplices… gorgeous… and breathes REALLY well. (He lent it to me for a particularly miserably hot summer mass once…)