We all have men we love in our lives. A father, a brother, a son, a partner, a husband, a best friend, a cousin… We also love crochet, and sometimes want to crochet something for the people we love.

For a woman or a girl, it’s easy. Crochet patterns for women and girls abound, ranging from the crocheted flower brooche to beautiful garment patterns. But for a man?

When I started crocheting garments (not so long ago!), this was one of the first questions I asked myself. Are there stitch patterns in crochet that are suitable for men? Now, you can always argue that both genders are created equal, and that anything that goes for a woman goes for a man, too. I understand your point of view, but I am not so sure the man you love will accept it. If you make him a shrug with lots of frills or a lacey cardigan, will he wear it?

Many men are conservative in their tastes, but they are not the only ones. I personally think that the slender and elongated, yet voluptuous and curvaceous double crochet has a feminine feel about it. The short and tough single crochet and it’s slightly taller brother half double crochet seem more unisex and, well… manly.

So, in order to know more about this important matter, I crocheted four different swatches in stitch patterns I thought could appeal to men. I chose my yarn very carefully, a medium-gray wool blend – no man on earth could deem this yarn too ”feminine”. It is a light worsted yarn (Phildar Pronostic +) and I worked with a 4,5 mm / US 7 hook for all stitch patterns.

I then submitted these swatches to the hardest test I could imagine. I showed them to my husband.

When showing him the swatches, I asked him to imagine these fabrics being used in a garment for himself – a sweater or a cardigan. I also asked him to be completely honest and tell me exactly what he thought about each swatch. (He earned lots of bonus points with a general statement that all the swatches were beautiful).

He proved to be the perfect test panel. My husband is certainly not the man to wear something ”girly”. He dresses rather conservatively and is very aware of quality and materials. He also has a (sometimes surprisingly) well-developed sense for fashion – he is French after all. I found his comments very enlightening, and hope you will too.

So, here are the test results:

Half double crochet in alternating loops

Stitch pattern:
Chain any even number of stitches.
Row 1: 1 hdc in each ch.
Row 2: *1 hdc in front loop only, 1 hdc in back loop only*. Repeat until end of row.
Repeat row 2.

I was a little surprised to learn that this was the stitch pattern my husband liked the least. He thought it was more ”feminine” than the others. The fabric was a bit too thin in his opinion, and lacked ”body”.

It is true that I worked all my swatches with the same hook, and this fabric would get more ”consistency” if I had worked it with a smaller one. It could be worth trying it again at a tighter gauge.

Half double crochet in back loop only

Stitch pattern:
Chain any number of stitches.
Row 1: 1 hdc in each ch.
Row 2: 1 hdc in back loop only in each stitch.
Repeat row 2 throughout.

In this context, the stitch pattern is intended to be used vertically.

Comments:
My test panel thought this was a nice stitch pattern for a big cozy week-end sweater to wear for a walk in the woods. (Yes, that’s exactly what he said). He thought it appropriate for leisure wear, but considered it less refined than his two top picks (below).

Single crochet in front loop only

Stitch pattern:
Chain any number of stitches.
Row 1: 1 sc in each ch.
Row 2: 1 sc in front loop only in each stitch.
Repeat row 2 throughout.

Comments:
This was one of the two stitch patterns my husband liked the most. He deemed it sober, distinguished and classical. ”I could wear this to work!”

I was not very surprised by his reaction (though he was more enthusiastic than I thought he would be). I personally think this is a great, basic stitch pattern to use when you don’t want to draw the attention to intricate stitches but rather to yarn and shaping.

Single crochet in alternating loops

Stitch pattern:
Chain any even number of stitches.
Row 1: 1 sc in each ch.
Row 2: *1 sc in front loop only, 1 sc in back loop only*. Repeat until end of row.
Repeat row 2.

Comments:
My test panel rated this stitch pattern among the two best ones. If I had pressed him (which I didn’t), I think he would have admitted that this was his favourite. He said it was masculine, but with a touch of refinement and subtlety. This stitch pattern produces round shapes in the fabric, which he thought added some excitement and made it very fashionable.

To me, this was the big surprise in the test. I thought he would find the rounded shapes too girly, but instead they were precisely the reason why he liked this stitch pattern so much. But as he searched for words to express what he felt, it all came together. ”It’s not unisex… not androgynous… but, there’s something there… It’s…tendance (’in, trendy’)”.

And yes, it has been a tendency for years now on the runways and among the celebs. The styling for men borrows a little from the women. Apparently, this trend is now  established well enough for my husband to wish for a garment worked in a rounded crochet stitch pattern. As long as it’s made up in medium-gray wool, of course.

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