Topic awaiting preservation: Warjournal Knots knots & more knots (Page 1 of 1)

Of interest perhaps... -_Q

https://medium.com/re-form/fifty-three-thousand-knots-one-mans-journey-into-the-craft-of-tatted-lace-deefb55795f3

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If you're not outraged - you're not paying attention.

That is an amazing read. I can definitely identify with a lot of the things said.

My very first tatting project was scallops on a macrame choker. I did it with a netting needle (that I had made with a slat of bamboo), but upside down. But I prefer needle tatting to shuttle tatting. My tatting needles are to my left and my tatting shuttle is to my right as I am typing this. My shuttle is wound with hemp string and waiting to become something pretty.

"How do you have the time for that?" and "You have too much time on your hands" are the kinds of comments that come my way the most often. My reply is usually along the lines of, "Some people can sit and crochet for hours on end. Some people can sit and do a 500 piece puzzle. Other people do cross word puzzle or sudoku. I do this. It is a hobby that keeps me busy and out of trouble. What do you do?"

Yes, lace in pretty much all forms is decorative with zero functionality. But my main problem is making something for myself. How do you make lace that is okay for a macho man? I have no problem with hobbies that are traditionally a woman's thing, but decorating my body with lace that I made would lead to too many situations that I would just as soon avoid. Know what I mean? I finally came up with a solution on how to make lace manly-ish. I made some bobbin lace with a very dark blue thread and then stitched it to a strip of black leather (basically black on black). At a glance, it looks like a manly leather bracelet, but only closer inspection will reveal the lace nature of it. Plus it can be reversed so that is really is only a leather bracelet.

And I admit that I do enjoy it when people are fascinated that a macho man such as myself can make lace. Preconceived notions in a curious manner without being judgemental. Maybe more later about sexism.

Good to see a fellow macho man with gauntlets. Excellent read. Thank you.

Manly macho man. I'm sure you folks know the kind of guy that I'm talking about. I have a bit of a habit of mocking them, mostly by obviously, and very poorly, acting like one. Tend to be the kind of guy that would never do, or admit to doing, anything remotely considered feminine. This included crochet, lace, and things. But making a net is manly! Nets are *very* manly! Yeah, I mock.

The odd thing is that I have met plenty of guys that know how to crochet and not a single one of them has been judgemental or awkward about it. All of the judgementalness that I have run into has come from females. Bizarre and very baffling. So, I love it when a guy has been accepted for doing such things without all of the hoopla.

There is a TED Talk about coral reef crochet. Absolutely amazing, but the female presenter made a few sexist snide comments that rubbed my ball of yarn the wrong way. If you have a few minutes, watch the TED Talk about coral reef crochet or hit Google Images ("coral reef crochet")for some crochet goodness.

Now, here is a guy that I found last night and some of the photos are pretty funny in a good way:

http://onemancrochet.blogspot.com/

My favorite snap is the group photo and he is in the background.

However, I am also guilty of some sexism when it comes to these things. That is, I don't always openly talk about some of my skills because I expect to be judged in a bad way. I need to work on that, but I am getting better about it. I'm secure enough in my manhood to crochet. Yeah.

Bit of a tangent rant.
But it's all good.

If you will excuse me, I have lots of snow to deal with and a thread to think about starting down in philo.

. . . . . . . --and a net to make!!