Don’t try to surprise people, and listen for requests. While hearing “Hey, these are cool, I want some too” may mean knitting lots of boring duplicates, the results get worn to death. I made a pair of fingerless gloves with a band of skulls and crossbones around the hand below the knuckles for the boyfriend, and guys who saw me knitting them were desperate for their own. Lots of them had seen fingerless gloves, but never anything with skulls.

Unfortunately, really cool things tend to get stolen if they’re left behind on accident — most of my favorite things I’ve knitted for other people have disappeared when left unattended in bars or restaurants for just a couple minutes. I try to see it as a compliment, but it still makes me crazy.

IMO, guys are hard to knit for for the same reason communicating with them in general is hard - they are difficult to get an opinion out of. You say “want me to knit this for you?” shoving a magazine/pattern book under their nose. “If you want to” they say - either they don’t want it, but don’t want to hurt your feelings, or else the game is on and they’re not really focusing on the photo in question.

So you go bananas, driving around town to get the perfect yarn, then you meticulously knit the thing - checking the sizing constantly - “hold your arm out, honey, and can you stand up for a second?” . On and on it goes, until the thing is done and both parties are sick of the sight of the thing. Is it really any wonder that the sweater goes into a dark drawer?

That said, I’ve made two sweaters for my now-husband - the first one was one of my very very early projects, and I screwed up the sizing. The second one was a gorgeous (yes, I say so myself) Aran cable sweater that took me nearly a year. And it didn’t like the way the neckline turned out, so he washed it with conditioner. It breaks my heart to write that, but it’s true. The sweater in question is now waiting to be felted - I’m going either make a baby-size Aran sweater for my infant son, or else a baby-size blanket with it.

Now I stick to scarves and hats for my husband, and we’re both okay with that. Although he was hinting around about argyle socks the other night…guess I’ll have to learn to knit colorways.

The first project I knit was a 6 foot long, black, 2×2 ribbed scarf for my husband (he was my boyfriend back then) I was away at school and sent the scarf to him as an “I miss you” gift. He told me he liked it. When I got home, I noticed that he never wore the scarf. I asked him where it was and he told me it was in his locker at work and that he wore it when he was working. OK. Then one day I was doing laundry and found it buried at the bottom of the laundry basket. Well… I took it back. No more knits for him!

Anyway, I’ve knit for a few men. The first pair of socks I made were for my husband. He wears a size 16 shoe so it’s very difficult for him to find comfortable socks to fit him. Since then, I’ve made several more for him and he’s most appreciative. He shows them off to people all the time! I’ve also made a pair of socks for my step-dad…who has really enjoyed them as well.

I’ve also made a very nice hat and scarf for my husband out of black sportweight merino. That scarf took forever because he wanted it long enough to wrap around a couple of times and still hang down to the length of his coat. And since he is 6′7″…that’s one long scarf! Fortunately, he always says he doesn’t like sweaters, so I won’t have to go down that road.

Right now, I’m working on Harry Potters scarves for my two foster sons. Hopefully I’ll finish the first one this week since it’s going to be scarf weather here before I know it.

Right now I’m knitting him a sweater. I decided to make him a sweater b/c he wears a ‘long’ and the choices ‘long’ sweaters come in are both few and far between AND usually not very hip. So I wanted to make him something that would not, under any circumstance, become a belly shirt on him. I started out to make him this lovely cabled complicated thing, but he nixed it. I designed a fairly simple sweater, with him making the major design decisions, it is a beige raglan in basketweave stitch. It’s fairly boring - but I would rather knit a boring sweater that he will wear, than a gorgeous sweater that he won’t.

I know he appreciates it, whenever I show him the next finished piece, it was most recently a sleeve - he gets the cutest grin on his face - though he does get this hysterical ‘man of much suffering’ look when I make him stand up for a fitting in the middle of some much more interesting activity - like a football game.

My 7 year old son wants all kinds of stuff, from a knitted stuffed bowling set to a knitted necktie for church. But he’s even more impatient than I am, so i don’t try anything bigger than a hat for him. He is, however, *learning* how to knit! Woohoo!

I’m currently working on a Geometric Scarf for my husband in Patons Classic Wool “New Denim” since he’s a freak for anything blue. He looked at it (in progress) and said “Oh”. I pulled on the sides to bring it out to blocked side and reveal the concentric rectangles hidden in the ribbing and he still had no enthusiasm. When I started knitting, I asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted a scarf, so now I don’t know what to do with him. He showed interest in the gloves I made for my dad (still haven’t given them to him), but each “fitting” (they have similar hand sizes) was met with much sighing and eyerolling. Maybe he’ll be more excited when it’s actually done, washed, blocked and dryed.

Kat

I made a hat for a boyfriend once - he actually wore it (and it rested on his hatstand there after). It was great to see it on him, for sure.

Otherwise, I’ve made a few gifts for other knitter guys - a set of mitts or two, socks and more - all really well received.

The only unfavorable experience I can think of is when I knit my dad a pair of socks, at Christmastime, and he looked at them like I had given him a piece of coal or something… like getting socks (albeit knitted socks!) for christmas was a bad thing!

My Father on the other hand has really sensitive skin and excema and since I turned my Mom onto sock knitting he has become truly spoiled. He now only wears handknit socks, as even the seam on machine made ones make his toes break out. So my mom knits a project and does a pair of socks for him, and so on. I have to say he is probably the most appreciative reciever of knitted goods. I have made him a couple of winter hats (he works outside all year round) and my favorite is for him is gloves. You see he had two fingers partially amputated on his right hand and some other hand damage. The amputations are very sensitive to cold, but with regular gloves he cuts off the fingers so the extra fabric doesn’t get in the way (it can get stuck under stuff when he is moving stuff and things like that). He was so touched that I custom made gloves that actuallly fit him. Last year he got a second pair in alpaca.

My brother on the other hand is so clueless about the care and feeding of any textile. I made him a cashmere scarf last year and barely got a grunt for my effort. That was good stash cashmere and it matched his coat and everything. so it is a bit of a mixed bag in my family.

The SO also wanted an argyle sweater, but retracted the request when he heard about the sweater curse.

I also knit a felted lamb for my son. He uses it as a pillow or a football. That’s okay with me.

A few months after I told him the blog-anecdote about handknit socks being like homemade bread for your feet, he confesssed that he’d become obsessed with having socks. However, I noticed he didn’t wear his socks much after I finished them. Eventually it came out he was “saving them for best”, because I’d worked so hard and what if he wore them out? I pointed out that if he had another pair, he could alternate. Man, I wish you could have seen the look of mingled relief and sock-greed on his face!

My last story is about my brother. Last December, I emailed to ask if he and my sister-in-law would be interested in getting socks for Christmas & was pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm. I looked around the internet & realized there’s a nice LYS just 2 blocks from their home. I arranged a gift certificate for an amount that covered enough yarn for one pair of socks in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and one pair in Koigu. (This was my sneaky way of letting them pick their own colors while retaining control of the yarn quality.) They brought their yarn picks to our family gathering, and I let them each pick 3 stitch patterns from my sock book. I swatched while we were all together, and once they could see how their yarn knitted up, they made their final choice. (I know this sounds labor-intensive, but it kept them excited about the process and gave me ideas about what kinds of things will appeal to them in the future.) I finished both pairs by early February, and they loved the socks. Which should have been the end of the story, except for the news they were expecting! In the spirit of big-sister mischief, I used the leftovers from his Christmas socks make baby socks … my brother’s first matching baby-daddy outfit! Although I meant it as a light-hearted joke, I am really not sure which he likes better, his own socks or my nephew’s.

I have knit several hats for my hubby, some he’ll wear & some he won’t. He is pretty picky since he is completely bald. Style isn’t an issue but, anything slightly itchy is out. That is why I had him pick out his own yarn for the scarf he wanted me to knit him. One of the two yarns ended up too itchy, but he wore it all season anyway. I have since taught him to knit. Actually the whole family can knit (daughter & son also), but we are the only two who regularly knit.

Kat

In desperation, he has taken up knitting himself, and now I have to share my stash.

Maybe I should have finished it sooner, but the genie is out of the bottle now!

BTW, at my S’nB, we have many male members, often the women are outnumbered. It’s not something we advertise, but it seems natural to me to have diversity in age, gender, race, and sexual orientation - it’s a craft, not a secret society!

I just knit some dishcloths for my brother and he loved them. I think it just cracked him up that I did that for him.

It definitely seems a little more challenging knitting for guys, but I’m sure there are some perfect guy patterns out there. A cabled scarf maybe? I’d be interested to hear about patterns that most men would love.

Although a few weeks ago he handed me the LL Bean catalog and said make me that sweater. Still hunting for the yarn, but that was a wonderful moment.

I am not sure if I will continue to knit him hats. He never comes home with them, not because he loses them. But because he sells them, lol.

I am more often likely to crochet afghans for males, than make them garmets. Although now that I have a son that will probably change.

I knit my first cabled sweater for my now ex-husband. Enough said.

I knit a cashmere/wool beanie last Christmas for the guy I’m dating now. He says he wears it. It hasn’t been cold enough yet this year. I also knit him a pair of socks for his birthday last year (size 0US with Lorna’s Laces sock yarn — I think it came out to 34,000 stitches). I am now knitting him a blanket for Christmas.

I have knit my brother a pair of socks and my stepdad two pairs.

I also knit a scarf for my self and HE wears it all the time.. hmmm..