Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Beginning

Hello all and welcome to my first blog. I named this blog 'alterknit universe' for two reasons. I hope to share my knitting with you and at the same time show my support for all the other male knitters out there. Secondly, being a huge alternative music fan, I'll also be throwing out some names of artists that I think are worth a listen. If you take me up on checking any of them out, let me know what you think!

My name is Ken and I'm a male knitter living with my partner Ron in Maine. I started knitting last September when Ruth-Anne, a co-worker and friend of mine, brought in a mitten she was working on. She showed me how she was knitting it in the round on four needles and I was pretty fascinated. Though I had toyed with the idea of learning to knit before, I never had the nerve to actually try it. But with some moral support from Ruth-Anne and a 'teach yourself to knit' book and I was on my way.

Though I did receive help and encouragement from co-workers (who have all been very supportive, by the way!), I basically hunkered down with my book and taught myself. I've been having a lot of fun and so far have managed two pairs of socks, two scarves, a hat, and one glove...yes just one but hey, I've got all summer to finish the other one!

My current project is the 'faux bear skin' rug that was featured in Knit1 magazine. There's some weird irony that I wanted to knit this since I'm both vegetarian and anti-hunting. I think it's more about the challenge of tackling such a large project than the end product. I'm not even sure what I'll do with it when it's done! You can see the pattern and a pic of it here. Though I'm pretty sure the beefcake doesn't come with the rug, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

















The pic I've posted shows what I have done so far, the tail and the rear of the body. The legs will be added on later at the corners. It's knitting up quicker than I thought, but I guess that makes sense since it's done on size 15 needles with four strands held together! I'll keep you posted on the progress as I keep at it.

No comments: