Teaching the Younger Generation
September 30th, 2006 at 9:46 pm (uncategorized)
I have to say I am one proud Mommy. My daughter expressed interest in my knitting a few times. Enough so that I bought her a ball of her favorite color yarn, and pulled out some needles and we cast on for a scarf for her dolly.
To start with, she would sit on my lap and watch until she got bored. Then I had her start holding the needles with me. Then she started holding the needles on her own - and I would loop the yarn around and tension it for her. (Knitting is really quite boring when you’re just holding the yarn). Months would go by between those events. We leave her knitting on the counter, and when she’s interested, she’ll ask. A few times I’ve asked her if she wants to knit, but the answer was "no". No biggie - I’m not going to force her.
The past week or so, she’s been asking to knit a LOT. Maybe it has something to do with the frantic pace I’m knitting Ribby Cardi.
So the other night I told her, "Ok, but mommy wants to knit on her own stuff, why don’t we show you how to loop the yarn yourself". After thinking about it and showing her how you can use your left or right hand to hold the yarn, I decided it would be easiest if she didn’t need to rely on always holding the yarn under some sort of tension like you do in continental knitting. Voila - we have a knitter:
And for the record, she turns 5 years old in 15 more days.
Please note how I am NOT touching her needles with my hands. I am very carefully holding my OWN knitting and encouraging her. She still asks for help with the first stitch of a row; and sometimes the last stitch. I’m really trying to let her do her own thing as much as possible and matter of factly deal with things like dropped stitches or if she accidentally splits the yarn or knits in the stitch below.
For now it’s great because she’s got a long way to go to finish that one ball of pink yarn; but I think my stash might be in trouble once she learns how to purl.
Grandma Pat said,
September 30th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Nancy, in the first picture, your right thumb is really tense watching Katie, trying to help her from afar. Your jaw is held in the “helping position” too. You have done the same with Katie that your Dad with you with his amateur radio (ham) interest, no pushing and only when you asked to learn. That is being a good parent. Tell Katie we all drop stitches accidentally. Oops, there goes another one. =)
marta said,
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:48 am
awwwwwwww….adorable! Is she coming to knitting group now? Say “high five!” for me. Sometime we’ll have to have a 10th Kingdom marathon spinning/knitting/fiber fest day…