Knitting with the kids
I went to Owen's first grade class this afternoon to start teaching knitting. It was a lot of fun.
I started by asking them what their clothes are made of, and then passing around samples of raw cotton, wool, and alpaca that I've gathered over the past few weeks at UC-Davis and the alpaca farm. Then I read a book entitled "From sheep to sweater" that talks about how wool is made into yarn and then knitted into a sweater, and showed them a couple of books of projects kids have made.
I showed them a few things I've made, and then we started doing finger knitting. The kids raided a bag of yarn balls (some I brought, and some were purchased by the teacher). Some of them got it right away - a boy named Raymond did especially well, as did Owen who had done it before at home and another boy named Andrew; the girls did not seem to get it as well for some reason.
It was fun. Next week I'll go back and maybe do some more finger knitting, then perhaps on to trying it with needles. One girl, Kyra, kept saying "Next time bring the sticks!"
posted by Katherine @ 4:57 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Isabella saw a lady knitting in Starbucks yesterday and now wants to learn how to do it. What is "finger knitting?" I'm afraid her attention span is too short to learn though she is very coordinated for someone not yet four years old.
Finger knitting involves basically using your hand as a knitting needle. If you are right handed, wrap the yarn around your left hand. You hold out your hand with palm facing you, fingers somewhat apart. Start with the index finger and wrap the yarn over, under, over, under the fingers and then go back the other way, looping it around so that eventually you have two loops around each finger. Then put the bottom loop up over the top and off the back of each finger. Wrap again, same as before, over under over under so you have two loops on each finger, put it over the top again. Eventually you end up with a long tail behind your hand. The kids have been using those as a wristband, a scarf, a belt, etc.
Here's a link to a finger knitting website: http://www.kidscanmakeit.com/AC0023.htm
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