So proud!

chickenista · #1 12/30/13, 09:50 PM

So.. I needed an excuse to go back to 50% off sale.
I roped DS (11) into being my reason.
(that and I am handing over 3/4 pound of the alpaca to a friend so I needed to get almost a pound of the white CorrieX roving, didn't I?)

Anyhoo.. we are heading off and I asked him if he wanted another scarf and hat. 'No."
Whaaaa?
'I like the alpaca ones you made for me. They're soft and squishy."
So I suggested that he make his own scarf.
Deal!
He chose a Araucania Panguipulli in a mottled green, brown etc.. very nice 100% Merino.

And then I taught him my tricks.
We started with a K2P1 stitch sequence.
After about 5 minutes he informed me that this was 'stupid easy!"
"sshhhhh! Don't tell anyone! They think it's magic!"

I noticed that he was automatically checking out the mechanics as he went along. Looking along the back to check his stitches and make sure the pattern was perfect.
I think that in many ways the male brain and knitting get along just fine.

Then he started asking about other groupings for stitches, other stitches, patterning and compostion.
He pointed out that it was just math and visualization. All while knitting along.

I had to force him with harsh words to go to bed.

I think I have created a monster!

We talked about the attractiveness of men who knit. The confidence and sense of true self that it takes to not have to prove your manliness constant.
If you knit then you are obviously completely cool with yourself in every way.
He mentioned the awe inspiring FR creations, of course, though that isn't his style.
He would like to make a sweater though. egads! I won't even try a sweater.

I will post a pic when he has completed his scarf.

Marchwind · #2 12/31/13, 03:55 AM

Congratulations on creating a fiber monster

. We divinity need more men who knit and other fiber interests.

Kasota · #3 12/31/13, 09:55 AM

An enabler of the highest order!!!

chickenista · #4 12/31/13, 01:23 PM

We spent the morning sitting on the red love seat by the woodstove knitting.
He was doing his thing and I mine. With occasional assistance if need from me.

I may or may not have grabbed a wee bowl of 70% cocoa, Black and Green's organic chocolate wafer/chip thingies to set on the chest used as a table.

Knit one section of pattern, grab a chocolate, knit a section, grab a chocolate.. it's a rythm.

partndn · #5 12/31/13, 01:37 PM

I can't wait to see it.

Bret · #6 12/31/13, 01:43 PM

I hope that you will tell him about football great Rosie Grier. His other gift was needle point.
So proud! - Fiber Arts

chickenista · #7 12/31/13, 02:16 PM

We have discussed the manly men that do fibery things.
We discussed that the knitting looms are even older than knitting with sticks and that the knitting/cord work was always done by men.
Clothing was still mostly skins and furs, so rope making and nets etc.. were in the man's world.

And, of course, he wants to spin as well. And dye.
I think he and I are going to make a spinning wheel of some sort..
the spindle is just not getting it really and I now have so much roving that needs to be spun.

He wants to do blacksmithing in the warmer months and fiber work in the winter.
A true renaissance man.

hotzcatz · #8 12/31/13, 09:23 PM

He doesn't have any older brothers that are tall and want to move to Hawaii, does he? Some daughters of some friends of mine are just getting to college age and they've been homesteader homeschooled girls and I haven't a clue how they are gonna find men friends. Sounds like you're training them right over there! If you get some older taller ones (the girls here are just over or just shy of six feet), send them over!

Wasn't knitting originally started by Scottish men?

chickenista · #9 12/31/13, 10:05 PM

Well... if your girls can wait..
The doctors guesstimate that his adult height will be 6'7".
He turned 11 3 weeks ago. We measured him today 5'5 1/4.
EGADS!
And he is also homeschooled and worries that he won't find a girl that he can talk to.
He wants a smart woman that he can talk to about intelligent things and who can do what he can do.
Though.. he says that if she can't cook, then he will bake the bread and do the cooking.
He wants to get an engineering degree, but only as back up.
He really wants to be a blacksmith.

I keep promising him that there are intelligent, non-duckface selfie women out there and that he will meet one when he gets out and about and into college etc..

He really abhors a frivolous woman.
Well.. he was raised by me..so.. yeah.

hotzcatz · #10 12/31/13, 10:21 PM

I haven't a clue what college the girls are gonna go to, but they aren't planning on going far from home for college until/unless they are going for a doctorate. They are completely outside the mass media, but they are very intelligent and know how to cook. Well, on a wood stove at least, dunno about an electric one. They can cook, sew, spin, weave, garden, shear sheep, milk cows or goats, ride horses, etc., one of them can speak Russian, one of them has her rabbits in jumping competitions, the other one has her dog in agility. The youngest isn't driving yet, and she's only about five foot something at the moment, so she's possibly not going to be as tall as her older sisters. Does he like older women? (I think she's thirteen at the moment) Red headed ones? Well, it's still early yet, but I have no idea where kids like these are going to meet compatible life mates.

What's a "non duck-face selfie"? I suppose if I knew what a duck-face selfie was, then I'd have a better clue, huh? (Never mind! You can Google ANYTHING and get hits. Amazing.) Well, they wouldn't know what that is, either.

chickenista · #11 12/31/13, 10:28 PM

A duck faced selfie is that pouty, poke out the lips face that girls make when they take a pic of themselves.
I am not sure how they got the idea that making a duck face is attractive..?

And red heads are fine with him. His first fiance (age 4) was a flaming red head.

And older women are better for him.
2 of his dearest friends are 14 now.. and he is still taller!
And, it is SO funny, teenaged girls at the grocery store will walk into things while staring and gawping at him.
He always points out that the girls would croak if they knew they were oggling a 10 yo. But he is 11 now, but they would still croak.

And those girls are so accomplished that he might bore them to tears. Yipes.
I feel like a total failure of a homeschooling mother.
We are more the Type D folks.
We value our down time and just don't have that much drive.

But he is a computer kid. He has had his own computer (made by DH) since he was 6 or so.
He loves all thing electrical engineer-y.
And he is an only child that values his solitude.
So... if any girl wouldn't mind a guy who likes his own space to just stand out in the backyard and think, or read or fuss with electronics, it could work.

This is so funny.

hotzcatz · #12 01/02/14, 02:28 AM

Standing around thinking would work if he was bringing the cows in or something useful, no doubt. If he likes solitude, there is a lot more of it this week with my homeschooling friends. The road to their house ate a truck the day before yesterday (it's been raining a lot and the culvert under the pavement washed away. A truck drove over the road and the pavement collapsed) anyway, the road ate a truck and they're now sort of marooned up the mountain.

Here's a picture of the youngest of the girls schlepping a 50# bag of feed across the broken road area. She's the one in brown in the middle of the bridge. We took up a week's worth of feed to them and everyone was carrying bags of feed across the broken bridge. I'm sure they have a lot of solitude these days! There isn't any other way down from the hillside and there's about fifty to a hundred folks that live up in that area so they are all kinda stuck up there.

Come to think of it, I don't know if she knows how to knit. She can weave, but I don't know about knit. He could teach her how to knit, no doubt.

So proud! - Fiber Arts

Anyone who would wear boots and a granny dress (in the rain while schlepping bags of feed around) probably doesn't spend much time with duck faced selfies.

chickenista · #13 01/02/14, 10:33 AM

Wow!
This has certainly been the year for heavy rains.
That scene could have come from the mountains here, a little west and north of me.
There were lots of wash outs and entire communities shut off.

And gess what..?
It's raining.
Again.
It was an awful year for the gardens.

But great for staying in and knitting.. he is watching Buffy and knitting as we speak.

Forerunner · #14 01/02/14, 03:54 PM

High kudos to a mother who encourages, inspires and teaches so patiently, effectively and enthusiastically......

Moving, to say the least.....

chickenista · #15 01/02/14, 04:18 PM

I had errands to run today and it is wet and cold and dark outside..
so.. the boy child has been knitting none stop all day.
About 8 hours.
I guess there are worse things that he could be doing.
I couldn't believe it when I got home.
He did all of his chores and sat right back down apparently.

Yep.
Total monster.
Like a bigger monster than I am..

Oh.. and with very few errors for somebody just started... like only a few days ago.
Inborn talent.
Cool.

hotzcatz · #16 01/03/14, 03:13 AM

Knitting is a genetic trait? Can we get a government grant and study this, do you think? There'd have to be a whole bunch of yarn for the control group and even more yarn for the genetic markers group and even more yarn for the folks keeping track of it all, don'tcha think?