Learned to Knit!

Yoav learned to knit this week for our Handwork activity!  He's only been wanting to knit for, oh, four years now :)  He's been very patient all these years - as a toddler, he helped me wind balls of wool; at age four, he learned to finger crochet; at age five, he learned to finger knit and finally now, knitting!

I used this article and this one to help with the planning.

I used the verse on Lisa's blog (the first link), but it wasn't ideal for us.  The verse is:

In through the front door,
Run around the back,
Peek through the window,
Off jumps Jack!

Yoav kept inserting the right needle above the left needle, so I added "and into the basement" after the first line.  I guess with that adjustment the verse works.  Yoav certainly loved the last line - he laughed at that part for the first twenty or so stitches ;)

For anyone starting knitting with a little one, I highly recommend the book, "A First Book of Knitting for Children" by Bonnie Gosse and Jill Allerton.  In hindsight, I think their verse would have worked better for Yoav since it includes an image of going under the left needle in the first line:

Under the fence,
Catch the sheep,
Back we come,
Off we leap.

It includes verses for casting on, purling, undoing stitches and a few other things.  

For yarn, we used this chunky 4-ply 100% wool yarn, which is what we've been using for all of our finger crocheting/knitting.  Yoav was very lucky to get about ten skeins from his Safta last year for his birthday!  And he used needles he made last week using this tutorial!

In the video, when he asks when he can switch yarns, he means when can he learn how to change colors...

It was difficult for me to teach knitting - I had to bite my tongue quite a lot! Up until now, I really haven't done any "teaching" and nothing has been such a big leap as this (from finger knitting to needle knitting).  It can be hard for me to watch him "muck about" (Holt) and let the learning happen if it seems slow to me, especially if he's doing something wrong (like holding his finger over the "window") that's obvious to me but not to him.  I often wonder who's learning more in this homeschooling journey!

Happy Knitting!