Simple Knitting Tips: Teaching kids to knit

At a recent Monday Morning Knitters gathering, I found myself with an adorable 3 year old watching me knit very intently. She was still and quiet and focused. I asked her, "Do you want to help me knit?" and of course she thought that was a grand idea.

When knitting with small children or teaching kids to knit, there are some guidelines that I try to follow, keeping in mind all the while that every kid is different and all guidelines will depend on the circumstances at the time.

Introduce them young--if they show an interest. My 3 year old buddy might not remember the details of the knitting we did together (although she might, because she's super smart), but having a positive experience with yarn and needles and knitting will stay somewhere in her memories.

Don't force it. If there is no interest, don't be that annoying grown up that makes them do a craft they don't want to do. It won't end well for anyone.

Work one on one whenever possible. With kids, you can't look away when they are in the middle of a stitch. If you can watch one child get through a row of stitches uninterrupted, you'll do better than trying to manage a a whole group of kids learning to knit at the same time. When I teach classes for kids, I keep them small--2-3 kids is plenty.

Break it down. My young friend wasn't quite ready for a complete knit stitch, so I broke it down into three parts:

1. Insert right needle into stitch on left needle.
2. Wrap yarn to form new stitch.
3. Pull loop through loop and take old stitch off left needle. 

When we began, I had her wrap the yarn, showing her once how and when to do it and then turning her loose. She did this for a long time before she decided that it was her turn to work parts 1 and 3 of the process. This meant it was my turn to work part 2, and if I was too slow in wrapping the yarn, she made sure I knew it! The cool thing was that, because she was a) super smart and b) watching me work the stitches, she knew just what to do when we swapped jobs and she took on the more complex steps.

Be patient. I really can't stress this enough. Anytime you're teaching anyone to knit, you simply must exercise the utmost patience. There is nothing more horrible than honestly trying to learn something and having your instructor get impatient with you. Just chill, y'all.  If you can't be patient, don't try to teach knitting. Call me and I'll gladly do it.

Repeat as often as possible, for as often as necessary. This works better if you are around the child frequently, of course. Just like grown-ups, kids go through a variety of moods everyday. The trick is to catch them during times that they are interested in practicing their new hobby, otherwise it is bound to be boring or even worse, considered "work."

Tools matter. If you're actually teaching them (as opposed to just having them help you), then you may want to get them their very own yarn and needles. Do think this through--if you get them cheap metal needles that are long and heavy and hard to handle with their small hands, you are setting them up for frustration. Bamboo needles are lighter weight and better for gripping stitches and not letting them slide off. Whenever possible, let them pick out a bright yarn in their favorite color--dark colors make it hard to see the stitches. Start them with a simple garter stitch scarf or washcloth or bookmark or wrist cuff (like a book mark, but sew it closed on the narrow ends) project. A fun knitting bag to carry it all in is always nice, too.

Have fun. If you are too intent on making them learn, they will pick up on your stress and pretty much hate it. Have fun with knitting and make their learning a grand, fun adventure.

How about you? Do you have any tips for someone teaching a little one to knit?

Simple Knitting Tips: Keep Track of Your Yarn

If you've been knitting for awhile, you've probably collected quite a lot of yarn. Maybe even more than a lot. This is not a judgement, as those who live in glass houses surrounded on all sides by heaping piles of yarn can't throw stones.

It can be helpful to keep up with what yarn went in what project. Ravelry of course is a wonderful online tool for listing your projects with pics and the yarn and needles used. It can be quite helpful to know that the scarf you knit your sister 3 Christmases ago was made with Stitch Nation Bamboo Wool, for example.

If you prefer a real world option, my friend Shannon has a fun way of keeping her yarn labels organized, tucked in with a bit of yarn. This is both tangible and practical.

Grab yourself a pack of trading card binder pages and put the yarn label and a bit of the yarn in each pocket. (I think this would have been very helpful when I knit the "Tamara" wrap and used 11 different colors of Wool of the Andes, some of which were close in shade to one another.  It's too late for that now, but I think future projects stand a much better chance of being more organized now.)

I know I have tried inserting the label into the yarn ball after a skein is wound, but they tend to fall out and congregate in the bottom of my knitting bag. Saving the labels this way is a great solution to that problem. 

For an added layer of organization, you could jot a note to include in the pocket, detailing what the yarn was used for and how many skeins you purchased.

Even if all you do is put in the yarn label and a piece of yarn, you'll be able in the coming months or years to know that one yarn feels softer than another, and that one yellow is more buttery in person than your computer screen says it is, making this a truly useful, truly simple knitting tip.

Thanks, Shannon!

WWKIP Day 2015: Charleston Knits

Any time knitters gather it's a thing of beauty, but when the gathering happens on World Wide Knit in Public Day, it's something extra special. Face it, it's hot in this part of the country in June. I have contemplated moving our own celebration of the day to a more temperate month, like March, but I stubbornly hold on to the idea of honoring the day on the day.

My very first WWKiP Day event took place at Riverfront Park in North Charleston, and we were back again this year. It was a truly gorgeous day. As hot as it was, the temperature under the ancient oaks was quite comfortable.

Knitting under the oak trees, overlooking the Cooper River.

There are panama houses and vintage officer's quarters all over the area alongside the park, which used to be part of the Charleston Navy Base and Naval Shipyard.

It was a relaxing time of knitting and chatting and people (and macaw!) watching. And we contributed to the Knit in Public movement in a tangible way. I loved being a part of something big, even if only for a few hours.

Afghan block progress for the Big 10 Charity Knit-a-Long!

Rex was good company and only tried to chase a squirrel one time. I think he looks a little jealous that he doesn't have a cool hat like Josie....

We even saw a tugboat!

Thank you to those who were able to make it and to those who messaged me that you wished you'd been able to come--we missed you! Hope to see you all next year on World Wide Knit in Public Day, Charleston style.

Simple Knitting Tips: Don't gripe

I love it when friends say things that make me think. Recently a friend was making a point about the importance of having a positive attitude and I realized that I am very often guilty of forgetting this.

Rex, who didn't really drive and very much likes my Simple Knitting Tip: Don't gripe!

Later that day, as I was having to do a previously unscheduled kid pick up due to a change in my hubby's plans, I caught myself feeling a little a grouchy about having to do this errand and thought, this is exactly what she was talking about. So instead of complaining to myself about my lack of down time, I turned it around and focused on what I wasn't lacking: a kid to pick up, a husband who had the opportunity to go do something fun on the spur of the moment, a car that works well and gets me where I need to go, beautiful weather to drive in, and of course an adorable dog to ride along with me. This change in my focus made my whole evening better and what had been a chore became a treat.

And then I found some knitting parallels, naturally.

When you feel tempted to complain about knitting gone bad, be thankful you have the opportunity to knit. When you feel the sting of injustice because you can't afford expensive yarn, accept the fact that it's not always the price of a thing that makes it precious. When you can't master a complicated project and this makes you want to give up altogether, stop and pick up something with a simple garter stitch and remember the joys of just knitting for the fun of it.

In knitting, as in life, when you choose to focus on what you have and the positive things around you, then you will discover that life is good and so is knitting. Isn't that why we started knitting in the first place?

I know it's not always easy to remember this. Sometimes it seems like literally nothing is going as planned. Sometimes we just need to vent and be grouchy. Sometimes no matter how many times you rip back a project, you still won't come out with the correct stitch count at the end of Row 12. I have found that if I am also griping about whatever is going wrong, it makes it harder to do/endure/fix.

I hope this tip is helpful for you in knitting and in life. In searching for some lofty, poetic, intellectual-sounding quote to cap off this post, I ran across this, which I liked even better, by Bernard M. Baruch, former Presidential adviser and South Carolinian:

"You can overcome anything if you don't bellyache."

Exactly.