Men Who Knit Promoting and inspiring the art of knitting amongst men.

Has anyone here ever participated in the Sock Wars? 

I'm tempted as I've done socks before but I'm nervous about getting a pattern that could get me "killed".  I have good reason to fear this.  The last pair of socks I made involved a pattern where it took me six (6) attempts to start the first one (the 6th attempt being one of my knitting teachers).  I started the second successfully by myself.  I can see myself getting something with 3 or 4 colors or a toe-up construction, which I've never done.

Any thoughts?

Luv 'n' Stuff,  Bob in Fort Lauderdale, where the boys are...but they don't knit...poor things

So I have been wanting to make this really cute ear flap hat...I get it, perhaps a little to ambitious for my firstknitting in the round project!  But I have now trashed two tries for coming out twisted...and the third is twisted yet again.  I would hate to have to abort this attempt as well!  I decided (perhaps later that I should have) to come to the source of all wisdom and see if there was anything that could be done...?  Can I salvage this twisted hat?

 ...at least I have a half finished scarf to dejectedly work on.

Since this is my first post on this knitting blog, I figured I'd post the last project I actually completed: a baby blanket.

One of my co-workers and his wife recently welcomed a newborn boy to the world. While I wanted to create a fitting gift for the occasion, I'm a relative novice at knitting -- perhaps six months or so -- and it was a challenge to find a baby blanket pattern that (a) I could actually accomplish and (b) would be attractive and interesting enough to present as a gift.

The blanket shown above wasn't my first attempt. I'd first tried a "windowpane" blanket, which required me to knit five vertical panels that could be stitched together. The outer and center panels were a solid color, while the other two panels alternated colors. When the blanket was stitched together, I was sort of OK with the color effect, but I was unhappy with the workmanship. Add to that an unfortunate snag -- one of the panels started to unravel, and I had no idea how to fix it -- and I knew I had to try again.

The biggest challenge for this baby blanket pattern had always been how to come up with a finished project that was clearly for an infant, yet didn't scream pastels. The parents are sort of hipster-y, skateboard-riding rockers who wouldn't be caught dead in anything sherbet-colored, so why consign their kid to that fate? I had to think long and hard about colors that were clearly male, yet that didn't come across as too cutesy.