For about the last year my older son, who is 6, has been pondering the idea of learning to knit. Each time I have offered to teach him and each time he has decided maybe not right now.
Last weekend he couldn't sleep and, after trying watching TV and reading, he asked if he could try knitting. Of course he chose 9.30pm on a Saturday when I'd got no way of getting him needles or yarn except from my stash and I don't have a lot that's suitable for teaching beginners. Lace weight and slippery sharp-pointed circulars? Perhaps not. I dug out a part-ball of grey wool aran and a pair of 5mm straights and set about teaching him.
I can't actually remember learning to knit myself. Logic tells me I must have done at some point but I have no recollection of it. It seems like it's just something I've always been able to do. My mum and grandma were both knitters but neither could remember having taught me either - each assumed the other must have done it, and they're both gone now so I'll probably never know. All I do know is I'm glad I was taught, whoever my teacher was.
I do remember Mum teaching my younger sister when she was about the same age as my son is now so decided to go with that memory.
"Down the rabbit hole,
Round the tree,
Up the rabbit hole,
Out of the wood"
That was the chant they used to learn the knit stitch, through the stitch, wrap the wool, back through the stitch and off the needle.
I cast on about 20 stitches and showed him the first few, down the rabbit hole, round the tree and so on, and then let him loose. Very very slowly off he went, inserting the needle, wrapping the wool, dropping the stitch, repeating the moves until he could pull the needle tip back and then carefully pulling the new stitch off and on to the right needle. After about three quarters of an hour he'd worked three rows.
Last weekend he couldn't sleep and, after trying watching TV and reading, he asked if he could try knitting. Of course he chose 9.30pm on a Saturday when I'd got no way of getting him needles or yarn except from my stash and I don't have a lot that's suitable for teaching beginners. Lace weight and slippery sharp-pointed circulars? Perhaps not. I dug out a part-ball of grey wool aran and a pair of 5mm straights and set about teaching him.
I can't actually remember learning to knit myself. Logic tells me I must have done at some point but I have no recollection of it. It seems like it's just something I've always been able to do. My mum and grandma were both knitters but neither could remember having taught me either - each assumed the other must have done it, and they're both gone now so I'll probably never know. All I do know is I'm glad I was taught, whoever my teacher was.
I do remember Mum teaching my younger sister when she was about the same age as my son is now so decided to go with that memory.
"Down the rabbit hole,
Round the tree,
Up the rabbit hole,
Out of the wood"
That was the chant they used to learn the knit stitch, through the stitch, wrap the wool, back through the stitch and off the needle.
I cast on about 20 stitches and showed him the first few, down the rabbit hole, round the tree and so on, and then let him loose. Very very slowly off he went, inserting the needle, wrapping the wool, dropping the stitch, repeating the moves until he could pull the needle tip back and then carefully pulling the new stitch off and on to the right needle. After about three quarters of an hour he'd worked three rows.
He'd had enough by then, and it was very much time for bed, but the next day he asked if he could get some knitting needles of his own. He wanted to make a case for his Nintendo DS. We went to the craft shop and found some children's knitting needles and then he picked out some multicoloured yarn to make his DS case.
Again, I cast on, and I've had to fix a couple of split stitches, but otherwise the work is his own. It's going to take a while, this DS case, but he's going to be so proud of himself when it's finished. And I'm sure his Granny and Great-Gran would have been proud of him too.
Again, I cast on, and I've had to fix a couple of split stitches, but otherwise the work is his own. It's going to take a while, this DS case, but he's going to be so proud of himself when it's finished. And I'm sure his Granny and Great-Gran would have been proud of him too.
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