I knit one of these for my husband, thinking it would surely be something he would use that I had knitted as he is a keen radio ham. However, the morse is not very clear in the pattern and he didn’t recognize it. He also didn’t know what I had knitted for him - ‘what is it?’ was his response. Furthermore, despite knowing what it is, he still hasn’t used it.
I can understand him not recognizing the morse, but I was disappointed that he didn’t appear to want to use the cloth and was thinking I wouldn’t knit for him again. I have softened a bit since then and decided just to knit him a sampler with something on it in morse - haven’t decided what yet - and make the morse stand out a bit more in the pattern.
Sounds like a neat idea and a good gift for a radio ham. I’m sorry he wasn’t more receptive. A light yarn might help the code to show up. How is it worked on? just raised by using purl? Some kind of “thing” he might use might appeal to him better. I’m thinking like a case for some piece of techno equipment or something.
My DH has the good sense to appreciate what I make. It earns him points and is pretty painless.
Ah, knitting for husbands or boyfriends…it’s tricky business. Been there, done that. I don’t knit for my DH anymore either. He likes thick hats…but truthfully, the only hat I think he’d REALLY WEAR are the hats that Judy’s husband, Tom, designs and knits. Oy. (Judy is our MerigoldinWa here at KH, JoodieKadoodieon Rav)
I’ve knit about a dozen hats for DH, and two sweaters. He doesn’t really wear any of them.
I’m sorry to hear the knitted gift didn’t go over well with your husband. I agree with a previous poster about using different colors of yarn for the Morse code. That certainly might show up better.
I have two gifts in progress for my hubby. One of these days, I may actually finish them, and he will really appreciate AND use them (I’m blessed as far as husbands go), but I’ve been very careful about what I make him. He’s not the sweater type, so that’s out! Instead, he’ll get a ski mask and an afghan. Meanwhile, to keep him appreciating the real gifts to come, I periodically ask him if he’d like me to crochet him a pair of fluffy, pink underwear! :teehee:
I don’t know if he does treasure it, Jack - he doesn’t know where it is now - I asked him about it the other day and he just said it was around somewhere. I do know that some people think a knitted wash cloth is too pretty to use as a wash cloth or a dish cloth. At least your wife is using your gift for something practical.
Here is a link to the pattern for the dish/wash cloth:
As you can see it’s just a random pattern of dashes and dots - sort of. Also, I didn’t use 2 contrasting yarns, but one multi-coloured ball of yarn, so it was difficult to make out the morse, especially the dots. I haven’t designed the sampler I hope to make him yet, but I was thinking probably the dashes could be similar to those in the wash cloth - yarn in front, slip 3 stitches, yarn in back - and the dots could be blackberry/popcorn stitch. Yes, they would definitely be in contrasting yarn, but I haven’t decided on colours yet - I have dark pink, white, yellow and purple in my stash.
Judy, I have offered him a phone cover in the past, but he declined, saying that he didn’t need one. I did knit a cover which was just big enough to cover a mike and on Valentines Day I put it over the mike and taped a card to it which said, Love me, love my knitting! I think he appreciated the humour, but hasn’t used it as a mike cover.
The dashes in the wash cloth are made by bringing the yarn forward, slipping the next 3 stitches, then moving the yarn to the back again. The dots are made the same way, except that you just slip 1 stitch instead of 3. Your dh sounds wonderful, but maybe he understands knitters better, being one himself, I gather.
Artlady, dh did wear a couple of sweaters I knit for him when his status with me was either boyfriend or fiance. I don’t know if he would wear one now that he has upgraded to husband, but it would take me far too long to knit one lol.
Antares - someone else with a wonderful hubby - I love the thought of the fluffy pink underwear lol.
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Oh, it is a repeating pattern of * dit, dah, * but in a variegated yarn. Did you tell him it was meant to represent Morse code. He may have missed that completely. Or he saw the dots and dashes and that it had no meaning or message because it just repeated the dot and dash making no letters or words. That last sound rather brutish, but we males don’t mean anything by it.
Or maybe he thought you made “scrubbing bumps” and he though his regular method of washing got him clean enough? That would be just like a man to think such a gift meant he needed to shower more. :doh: or that you’d like him to do up the dishes (or do so more often).
I was pondering the difficulty of actually coding a real message in Morse and then knitting that into a pattern. My son is a Boy Scout and because it is the 100th year of Scouting in the USA he learned Morse code as well as some other signaling methods.
Morse code - Wikipedia shows a table for translating letters and punctuation into Morse code.
It would be real tough to knit in a real message coded in Mores. :oo:
But, I bet if you made another wash cloth with the Morse code spelling out “Stinky brute” or “His” or “Three Letter word for Clueless : man” or just about any number of simple, humorous or funny insults would make it an item to share with his ham friends.
Well, don’t make it say anything that you wouldn’t already tell him. No sense causing a big rift over a wash cloth; is there?
I guess I’m just saying he may be :shrug: <clueless> about any emotional meaning you invested into the Morse Code wash cloth.
I’m sure he wasn’t trying to hurt your feeling. I’ve had 20 years of training and I still make such goofs. To emphasis the level of that training, you should know that my dear wife’s profession is special education teacher. She has a lot of patience for "students"who have difficulty learning. Yet I sometimes still mange to try her patience.[/COLOR]
He asked what it was and when I replied that it was a wash cloth, he just said, ‘oh’. When I told him the pattern was meant to represent morse, again he said, ‘oh’. I don’t think he read any subtle messages into it.
I was thinking of working his callsign into a sample that he could set somewhere in his ‘shack’. Other thoughts were, ‘I love you’ and ‘Love me, love my knitting’, but I used that one already with the Valentine’s Day gift.
To be honest, I can see how anyone, even a radio ham, could miss the morse code in this. It looks like x string x string repeat, NOT morse code.
Maybe, a better idea would be to actually write something in morse code, like your hubbie’s name or “I love you” and put that pattern/design on a scarf or lap blanket.
I plan to work some Morse into a small sampler, which he can have somewhere in his shack. I don’t really want to spend the time knitting something like a scarf or a blanket when I don’t know for sure that he is going to wear same.
