I’ve been knitting on and off since I received my first knitting set as a child over thirty years ago. I suppose it’s considered a bit sexist to give them to little girls these days (and those awful Bratz dolls aren’t?) but my other half used to do cross-stitch kits when he was small so why shouldn’t you let little boys loose with knitting needles … aah, maybe I’ve just answered my own question there … But the point is, it’s a creative pastime that stimulates the imagination and also teaches you how to follow instructions, invaluable in later life when you’re assembling Ikea furniture. Perhaps that’s why men ignore instruction manuals; if only they’d learnt to knit from a pattern when they were kids.
Maybe it’s too closely associated with granny in her rocking chair or the WI for your average young hoodie to take it up but, funnily enough, the only man I’ve ever known admit to knitting (he used to knit soft toys for charity) was ex-army and over six foot. The other half sneers when I proffer a ball of wool and needles and offer to teach him how to knit, but he keeps threatening to give up smoking so this could just be the diversion he needs
