Knitting TV

While scrolling through the on-screen TV guide I accidentally stumbled across the offerings on my local PBS affiliate's secondary digital channel. I don't know if today's schedule is representative of their usual programming, but Knit & Crochet Today! was enjoying a marathon run. (Apparently the title has been changed to Knit & Crochet Now for its third season.)

I watched parts of a couple episodes and took in the entire "Projects for Guys" episode. First observation: this would be an excellent show to have on in the background while taking a nap. That's not meant as an insult. It just has a soft, soothing quality, especially in the audio production.

I was somewhat surprised at how basic the instructions are. In second season episodes there are still descriptions of how to do knit and purl stitches. Maybe I should have been paying more attention when they were crocheting.

Although a man showed how to make a sweater and scarf that would meet with male approval, make no mistake that the "Guys" episode was aimed at women wishing to find projects to make for the men in their lives. (Fair enough.) In my opinion the patchwork scarf was kind of ugly and way too busy with the different stitch patterns. The sweater had far too much ornamentation for my tastes. (C'mon, they were doing a variation on bobbles.)

They would have done well to heed Debbie Stoller, who was interviewed about Son of Stitch 'n Bitch in the middle of the episode. She said that most guys like plain clothes--this one does--even though that may not thrill the knitter.

Based on this sampling, the show would seem to be more for novices, not anyone who's been knitting for any substantial length of time. Still, I might take another look at it again at some point.