QueerJoe Knitting and Pearling
Yes, you read that correctly. Knitting and PEARLING! While technically, I’m really crocheting and pearling it wasn’t quite the same blog title.
What Is Knitting and Pearling?
A while ago, I mentioned that I saw an MSNBC contributor wearing purls. It renewed my interest in claiming a simple strand of pearls as something a guy could wear.
This might not seem very revolutionary to many. Yeah, yeah…big deal…someone gender-fucking around with jewelry. But for me it’s never been easy to try and carry off something like this. But truthfully, I like wearing pearls. I love their heft. The smooth iridescent quality of the little gems has always made them appealing to me.
At the Men’s Knitting Retreat two weeks ago, a very thoughtful and generous attendee gave me a beautiful string of purls. They were graduated in size and looked really nice. Unfortunately, I’m not used to wearing necklaces, and on the drive home, I was scratching my neck and broke the string of pearls (sorry Derek…if you’re reading this). They went all over my car. But I have saved them all, and I will definitely re-string them. The size was perfect for a casual bit of bling on my neck.
Another friend from home sells handmade jewelry. She had the perfect strand of pearls (the pearls in the feature photo above). So now I have two strands.
Wearing them is everything I’d hoped…luxury that makes me feel so good.
Current Crochet
A little behind-the-scenes look at blog photography. I have two decks on the back of my house. The railing on the top deck has become a favorite spot for taking photos of longer items. As I tried to set up the photo for today’s blog entry, this happened.
Oh jeez! It required me to drop the entire piece down to where the cone of silk landed. I then decided to just take the photo on the lush green of the back yard.
I add another couple of row-repeats to this beauty. It’s up to about 14 I think. I have noticed the rows are starting to go more quickly as they get shorter and shorter. Hopefully I’ll have made even more progress by Monday!
You wear whatever you want! I bought some black pearl earrings recently and love them.
The pearls look great. Neat to hear the special connections they have to friends too. I mentioned acquaintance Aldis in a past post comment and his wearing large and wonderful rhinestone broaches.
My brother Andrew wears my mother’s necklace. After she died, he decided to keep a favorite strand of stone beads she loved wearing. Pastel shades in tan, pink, white, and green, I think. I know there was rose quartz and aventurine. He had it restrung into a more choker style and made tiny Christmas ornaments from the individual leftover beads. The necklace looks fantastic on him and has that beautiful connection to our mother.
Your family sounds wonderful!
And for Joe if you didn’t know, pearls thrive being worn next to the skin, so maybe you can restring the broken ones into a choker that will stay about your T shirt. And you’ll have 2 styles.
Also it is never “just whatever” whenever any of us do any thing, even a tiny thing, that allows us to show our authentic selves that goes against long standing cultural norms. It takes some gumption. And it’s fun. And if it has the bonus of challenging someone to open their mind a bit, then good for them.
I am so happy to see you wearing pearls! You go boy!! I LOVE IT!!!
I take no issue with a man wearing pearls, but I urge you to wear them with something a little more special than a tshirt. IMO, that shorter string should really be shown off again bare skin, so I suggest an open shirt (as in the photo from MSNBC). Makes a special piece to wear out to dinner or on a date with Thaddeus (or while commentating on TV, I guess). Enjoy!
As a former jewellery store manager…when you get the pearls restrung have a knot tied between each pearl. This will result in only one or two pearls dropping to the floor if the the strand breaks again. If you really want to play with gender fuckery might I suggest you knit a twin set to go with the pearls… I can see you rocking that look with ease!
Yes! A twin-set and a smart little pill-box hat.
Enjoy your pearls. One of my favorite SFGiants baseball players wears a string of pearls for every game. He’s a fun loving base runner.
A jeweler friend of mine sells a ton of pearl jewelry to men. It has become quite popular in the last couple of years.
Also, I think you look great in them. They are fine with your casual wear!
They look great on you. Enjoy!