#Repost @lorettanapoleoni with @get_repost ・・・ This is the first part of a beautiful story from an online magazine Shine.cn There should be no gender gap in knitting or other handicrafts,” said Pan, 34, a male knitter and knitwear entrepreneur in a village in the southern province of Guangdong. At age 6, Pan learned knitting from his mother, who like other women in their village handcrafted clothing for a foreign trade company in the 1980s and 90s. By the time he was 10, Pan had become quite accomplished and could knit a woolen sweater with ease. “I have liked knitting since my childhood,” said Pan. “The voices of doubt have always been there. Many people said that I was like a girl. I was embarrassed at the very beginning, but now I don’t care what people say about me.” While his teenage schoolmates were engaged in rough-and-tumble play after class, young Pan knitted and chatted with his mother and his neighborhood ayi. But as the 21st century dawned, those happy memories seemed a distant past. Handmade items were being replaced by machine-made goods, and knitting circles all but disappeared. Leaving his hometown, Pan studied pharmacy at university. However, he wasn’t really interested in his major, so undertook to learn Japanese on his own and later worked as a Japanese translator for a foreign company after graduation. In 2009, he had the idea of starting a business related to his hobby of knitting. He opened a Taobao store called Panwallzer and tested the market for handmade knitwear in his off-work hours. To his surprise, there were many people nostalgic about handcrafted clothing. In the first year, he earned thousands of yuan a month, higher than his existing salary. Determined to press on, Pan quit his job and returned to his hometown. His parents weren’t exactly overjoyed about his plans. #knittingbymachomen #maleknitters #maleknitting #sticka #knittaz4life #knittaplease #brooklynboyknits #knittax #knitta #knittaddict #maleknittersofinstagram #maleknittersaretakingover #maleknitting_cologne #maleknittersoftheworld https://www.instagram.com/p/B57mZDYHcsn/?igshid=135xt2i7iryzo
