Men in stitches

Why Indian Men Don’t Knit

 Tom Daley, retired Olympics champion, knitting at the pool Photo: Vogue

Indian men can do many extraordinary things- build industries, run companies, launch missiles, cook elaborate curries, and deliver long lectures on self-reliance. Yet I have never seen an Indian man knit. Hand them two knitting needles and a ball of wool, and suddenly masculinity needs protecting. Men who carry guns without blinking, are unnerved by needles less than a foot long. Really?

Not that I am an accomplished knitter or make heirlooms or Instagrammable cardigans, but knitting is my base activity in winter. Any time I am not officially occupied by cooking, household chores, or sundry existential issues, I pick up the needles.

Growing up in Chandigarh, I learnt that knitting needles were an extension of woman’s hands. Women began knitting in the humidity of September, so that the family had fresh outfits for the season. A family function meant teamwork, one woman knitted the aaga (front), another, often a neighbour, pitched in for pechha (back) and someone else the bavaan (sleeves). Two to three days later, ta-da-a new sweater, no boutiques, no brand name.

Today, fewer and fewer women are knitting. It is easier to buy readymade woollens than to labour for hours counting stitches and shaping armholes. (Teachers in rural government schools, however, continue with monk-like dedication- two metal sticks clicking away while students wait patiently for Goddess Saraswati to enlighten them.)

In other countries, men knit openly- on public transport, in cafes, parks, some even in flights, they claim. (If you have seen this, please write in and tell me what needles pass airport security.  Bamboo? Plastic? Blunt?)

India, meanwhile, has over a billion people and not one uncle knitting quietly in the winter sun. What a tragic waste of perfectly good wool!

This contrast fascinates me.

Ironically, knitting began as men’s work. Fishermen, sailors, shepherds, men with weather- beaten faces and low on patience for nonsense, learned to knit to survive.  British sailors made their own knitting needles to knit jumpers at sea. Boys in the Scottish Highlands were taught knitting during the long hours of herding sheep. During the World Wars, schoolboys were taught knitting to supply warm clothing for soldiers. Surgeons knit to improve dexterity.

Even recently during the pandemic, men the world over, picked up knitting for self-care and mental health. Male users on a UK site rose from 10% to 25% after Olympic swimmer Tom Daley's public knitting. Prison inmates in US knit to develop patience and empathy.

Engineers knit, artists knit, and so do men with excellent jawlines.

1.Schoolboys knitting while rollerskating 2.Age no bar for knitting 3. George Lucas knitting at Starbucks 4.Colourwork underway

Whether it originated from knot or cnyttan in Old English or knutten in Dutch, knitting means using two or more needles to make loops of yarn, interconnecting them row by row to from a fabric or garment. No looms, no equipment, no major resources required, just two needles and a ball of yarn, very portable, very convenient. 

Yet I personally do not know any Indian man who knits or ‘admits’ he does. I recall only one- a veterinary doctor interning under my father knitted baby booties and cap for his sister’s Home Science project.

Does knitting cause an identity crisis?

Once, when I started knitting in the car, the driver announced proudly that he also knew knitting. I asked him why did he waste his time watching Youtube videos, earning others revenue, then. Arey nahin, now I am married, it is my wife’s job, was his reply. Like cooking, cleaning, washing, knitting too belongs in the woman’s job profile? Yet male dress designers flaunt their creations on the catwalk. With women entering armed forces and board rooms, male bastions are collapsing fast. Is knitting their last line of defence? They better think of new avenues.

Men may not make babies, but they sure can knit sweaters.

Or is it the role model problem? You never saw men knit, so never learned. But Indian men knit. Sohail Nargund, an engineer started to knit to cope with grief after his mother’s death and now runs a business.  Nazar Nasir of Srinagar, learned knitting and macrame through Kashmir shutdowns, and is known as our country’s only male macrame artist (@Knotty_Crafts). Mohammad Furkhan, a mechanical engineer, started with crocheting during lockdown and learnt to knit, made a bonnet for his niece. Our republic did not suffer due to that.

Nazar Nasir Photo: Kashmir  Life

Ah, you think knitting is too soft? It does not ask for large expensive equipment, energy drinks, big biceps, and a degree to flaunt? Let me tell all engineers, craftsmen or those working with hands that knitting has patterns, charts, complex stitch calculations that any errors can test your patience and your brain power. Male yarn artists possess astonishing depth of knowledge of the craft. These include Arne Nerjordet & Carlos Zaachrison, Joe Wilcox, Tom van Deijnan, Stephen West, Luke Shilson-Hughes, Koushi Radhakrisnan, and many, many more.

Book by Arne & Carlos Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books 

Or do you worry over peer judgement? Actors like Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor and Russell Crowe, footballer Rosie Greer, and several others knit in public. Are you waiting for an Indian cricketer or film star to post a picture on Facebook of him knitting? Look at the patterns our politicians’ weave!

It also surprises me that men who book expensive meditation courses to calm the mind, are wary of taking up this no-stress activity that is cheaper than a fast food meal and gives you something warm in the end.

Besides, you watch something grow, stitch by stitch, row by row until it becomes a complete thing, like a life lived.

Or, perhaps it is good Indian men don’t knit. If they discovered how centering it is, they would throw away the TV remote, hog the easy chair, demand a good cup of tea and fight us women for the knitting needles.

Haven’t we shared enough already?

                                                                                               -Anupama S Mani