so, months ago - in october - I got an email from a friend asking me for an outrageous favor. outrageous. apparently, the boys at my sister church wanted to knit scarves for the girls as a thank you for the wonderful brothers' appreciation that they put on. so I guess it was more of a you're welcome gift, since it was the brothers who were being appreciated, which is essentially a thank you... but I digress.

anyway, what possessed this group of supposed men to pursue knitting is beyond me. not only would they have to suffer through the potentially difficult learning process, they would have to endure the ridicule of other men, friends, family, bartenders, other people's families, their girlfriends/wives and maybe even the other women as well. wouldn't a thank you card say it just as nicely? well, probably not.

it was great fun teaching them. quite a few guys attended our first session. not as many came the second time - perhaps it was too time consuming for some of them. a few of them caught on pretty quickly and managed to churn out a bunch of nice scarves in the end. even the ones that had a bit of a harder time still produced very nice, even, beautiful scarves that the women loved. I was so impressed with them. go boys!

I wonder if any of them will stick with it. it was definitely amusing to hear them talk shop yesterday. after they had distributed the lovely handmade gifts to the oohs and aaahs of the much appreciative girls, they were able to finally talk in public about all the frustration and humiliation and satisfaction that came from their new found skill. throwing around knitting terms like it was part of their everyday vernacular brought a big smirk to my face and a swell of pride in my heart.

although I may have occasionally ridiculed them for the decrease in their machismo, I am proud of my little students. I had really wanted to teach just one boy to knit for a long time, and I was suddenly given a chance to teach a whole room of them all at once! the scarves really did come out wonderfully and I know the boys are proud of their work too. I hope you all feel accomplished and a little more well-rounded, thanks to just a pair of knitting needles and a few skeins of yarn. at the very least, you've got my respect for not backing down from a potentially daunting, demasculating task. way to go, guys!