Tag Archives: children

Knitting with Kids

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I’ve mentioned my job before- I teach kids’ arts-and-crafts classes after school at local elementary schools.  Mostly, I teach classes where kids learn to use a sewing machine (hopefully safely), and learn basic construction.  It’s pretty great.

But from time to time, I get to teach something else.  This summer, it was jewelry making.  Last spring, it was quilting.  This semester, it’s knitting!

I love knitting (obviously), and teaching kids knitting is kind of the best.  I have nine kids in my class, and I’d say three-quarters of them are actually really into making stuff with yarn.  (The other quarter is really into making pompoms and trying to see how big of a mess they can make.  But that’s kind of par for the course of teaching elementary-aged kids.)

I love seeing how creative kids can be.  You’ve seen one of my student’s pumpkin.  (I still think it’s possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.)wp_20161025_16_28_22_proBut we’ve had all sorts of stuff made in this class!  Tiny blankets for dolls, bracelets, mini scarves, a stuffed bunny, and even finger-less gloves.

We’ve even had a couple kids make hats, using a knitting loom (a fantastic invention for little hands who have trouble wrangling needles and yarn).  One girl made a hot pink hat that ended up being a little too small for her head because she has amazingly curly hair, so she’s making another one, bigger this time.  Too cute!

And a different girl made this hat for her little brother.  She did it all on her own, with no help from me.  Can you guess what it is?wp_20161108_16_40_50_proIt’s a frog hat!  Of course!  Isn’t it amazing? A six-year-old came up with the idea for this hat and managed to execute it all on her own. So impressive!

I’m going to miss this class when it’s over in a few weeks.

Do you eve knit with kids?  What kinds of projects do you work on together?

Knitting with Kids

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For my “day job” I get to hang out with elementary school kids and teach them sewing and arts and crafts.  It’s kind of the best- I’m still half-surprised it’s my job.  And for a couple golden weeks each summer, I get to teach my absolute favorite class- knitting.

We have a range of ages- last week we had a dozen children from 6 to 10.  Some had knit before, and some had never even touched a knitting needle.  We started with finger knitting, letting the kids get used to playing with yarn, and getting them used to the idea of pulling loops into other loops (a surprisingly difficult concept for some of the little ones).

One girl was enjoying her finger knitting so much, she did it all week- ending up with a finger-knit tube almost 60 feet long.  She then took her finger-knitting and sewed it together in a spiral, making a multi-colored rug that she was really proud of.  WP_20160715_10_26_08_ProWhen a kid gets bored of finger knitting (which most do), we move on to loom knitting with the Knifty Knitter.  I am completely in favor of the Knifty Knitter now- a position I would never have taken even a ouple years ago.  What I once thought of as “cheating,”  I now see for what it is: a way for kids (or anyone, really) who don’t quite have the motor skills to actually knit.

The kids this year made adorable hats (with pompoms), fingerless gloves, bags, and even a tiny hedgehog stuffed animal.  (This is a glove in progress:)WP_20160715_10_26_14_ProAnd every class, we get a kid or two who wants to try their hand at “stick knitting.”  This year 9 of our 13 students broke out their needles.  It was a record!

There is nothing more adorable than a whole classroom of kids, needles clicking, concentrating on their projects and chatting about whatever it is that kids chat about.  (I wanted to take a picture to share with you, but I figured their parents might have reservations about having their kids pictures up on the internet.  So, you can look at my student’s knitting project- her second ever!  I believe it ended up being a very small pot holder.)WP_20160715_10_26_24_ProHave you ever knit with kids?  How did it go?

Knitting with Kids

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Almost a month ago, I spent the week teaching a beginning knitting class to a group of 10 school-aged girls (ages 7-11).   I couldn’t wait to see what would happen.  I’ve taught people to knit before (but always grown-ups), and I’ve taught kids before (I teach sewing lessons as my day-job).  But, this would be an interesting new experience.  I was excited, but also oddly nervous.  Would they be able to do it?  Would they like it?  Would they get too frustrated?

Here are some things that I learned:

1.  Fine motor skills are definitely needed for knitting.  I don’t think any of the girls under 8 really “got” knitting, which is too bad.  I just hope they remember that knitting is fun, the next time they try it.  It also makes me wonder about those stories you hear of girls in Ye-Olden-Times, who learned to knit at the age of 4 to help their mothers with keeping the family clothed.  Maybe olden-time-y girls had better dexterity, but that seems unlikely.

2.  Focus isn’t really a problem, when the kids are excited about what they’re making.  My girls complained and whined when they had to leave class for recess!  It kind of made my day to hear them all go, “Just let me finish this row!”

3.  Except when focus is a problem.  Sometimes the chatting got a little too much for the girls, and that’s when they’d start adding extra stitches, dropping stitches and otherwise causing themselves problems.  But that’s not really a kid problem.  Everyone messes up their knitting when they get distracted.

4.  Nothing is better than when a difficult, new skill “clicks” with a kid.  They get all excited and giggly and proud.  One girl had never picked up knitting needles at the beginning of the week.  Her first project was more hole than knitting, and her second project looked sort-of like knitting, albeit a little wonky.  But halfway through her third project, you could actually look at her knitting and see the row where she finally figured out  knitting.  It was amazing.  She got so excited, and told me that she had even gone to JoAnn’s the night before to pick out her first pair of knitting needles and her first ball of yarn.

5.  Knitting is a slow process, and sometimes kids need someone to push them a little bit.  I didn’t force anyone to work on a project that they didn’t want to do, but there were definitely a couple times when one of my girls wanted to stop halfway through a project, and I gently suggested that they kept going.  Once they got back in the swing of things, they’d invariably finish the project.  When kids are used to instant-gratification, working on a single project for a whole day (or two or three), can be a test of their patience.

6. The best part of knitting, whether you are a kid or a grown-up, is sitting around with your friends and shooting the shit.  I ran my class like a knitting circle, helping one kid at a time with their projects, while everyone chatted.  I had a few super-basic projects for everyone to start with  (a garter-stitch book mark, a garter-stitch headband, a garter-stitch bracelet…see a pattern?).  But, everyone worked on their favorite pattern at their own speed, chatting and helping each other out.

I hope that I sparked at least a couple of the girls to take up needles and do some knitting on their own.  But even if they never knit again, I think everyone had a fun week, and at least walked away from class thinking that knitting is pretty neat.