It’s a BOY!… thing…

Okay, so I am not as cool as Kansas, who has made at least sixty crafting projects a day, nor am I as awe-inspiring as Is, who vanishes, then reappears with like ten completed knitting projects plus a full-on sweater, and casually notes that she plays that Brain Game everyone plays here as a break. No, we know who the master knitter, baker, gardener, artist and holder of the Philosopher’s Stone is in this house. However, I am, if nothing else tenacious. All modesty aside, I think we can truly say I don’t quite know when to quit.

Thus we have the glory that is the six foot scarf. Mac took one look at it, and dubbed it “The Man Wrap.” Yes, it’s a boy thing. (*And now he can match with some others who have Man Bags. Ahem.) It is rather generously sized, but the thing is, a man who is six foot three has to have a scarf that can take up that kind of proportion and not look ridiculous.

Recently, Cheryl @ A Simple Yarn also blogged about her experience using a wooden loom. She was, in a word, unimpressed. I agree with her that loom knitting isn’t exactly mentally challenging (I tend to do it while watching movies — I don’t have to look or count or do much but repeat the same movement), but mostly what intrigues me is how different our projects look. A narrower gauge of yarn, thinner pegs or a looser weave can all combine to create completely different scarves hats and wrist-warmers. There’s a lot of flexibility and variety to loom knitting, once you find the time to get past the basics. If you’re interested, check out the newest Loom Knitter Circle ezine. Their chevron scarf looks quite interesting, and there are bags and socks and more. I’m always astounded by what loom knitters can do with something so mind-numbingly simple.

So: The Man Wrap. It’s a foot wide, and six feet long, and the idea is that Mac can fold it in half and just wear it as an extra layer beneath a coat, or he can actually cover his face and look like a mafia man with the black fedora tilted over his brow. Since some people already think he’s part of the mafia here — a cab driver actually told us this, but I’m just a bit skeptical! — we may as well go whole hog and be purposefully sinister. Actually, we don’t much care anymore what we look like when we go out. The last three days it has hovered between 0° and -3°, and the calender does not yet admit winter — we have another three days ’til then. We have begun to dress for what is yet to come.

Last but not least: People have asked whether or not looming is faster than needle-knitting. Now that I am fairly proficient in both, I say not necessarily — but if you can equate mindlessness with speed, you might be able to whip through something fairly painlessly during the course of a weekend and still be good company. See, I’m still enough of a needle knitting novice that if I’m doing anything more complex than a garter stitch, it takes me a while to form coherent sentences… can’t talk and knit, which makes my attendance at group things a bit embarrassing. Still, I’m getting there… one wobbly, lumpy knitted project at a time…

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