Knitting Kids Part I – Why Knit?

This is the first post in the “Knitting Kids” blog series on teaching your kids to knit. 

I don’t know about you, but teaching kids to knit is hard.  The lady who taught me to knit said her mother taught her at age 3.  She just handed her some needles and told her to watch.  She picked it up in no time, just watching and mimicking.

My children are nothing like that. 

When I just hand my 3 year old some knitting needles it nearly always turns into a sword fight   
I sometimes wonder if children have always been so instant-minded and impatient.  My guess is that humans of all ages have been impatient since the beginning of time, so my theory that this generation of kids is more instant-minded might be arguable.  I want my kids to love knitting.  I want them to be creative, or at least have an appreciation for creativity.

All of my kids want to knit.  Every one of them.  

Knitting is not a male or female activity.  Neither is it an activity for females and sissy males.  Having taught both boys and girls to knit, I can attest to the fact that it doesn’t come easier to any gender.  I have not had to push my boys into knitting.  They push me to teach them.  It’s a fine motor skill.  I can think of many tough guys who have knit throughout history.  Actually, many historians believe knitting began with men.  Sailors knit.  Soldiers knit.  It’s a survival skill.  Kids benefit by learning how to knit like they benefit learning how to garden or how to cook.

In addition to all of that, knitting is one of those special crafts that is passed down from person to person.  It’s sitting down with a child, and teaching them something that will stick with them for the rest of their life.  Even if they don’t remember how to knit when they are 20, they will always remember that you took the time to teach them.

It’s cheap to teach, besides the time factor.  However, the time factor make it extraordinarily valuable to your kids.  Let’s face it: they want our time.  They want our full attention.  We often read to our children, and that makes them lifelong learners.  Teaching a child to knit teaches them an appreciation for the arts and crafts.  Even if they don’t knit their whole life long, they will always, for the rest of their lives think to themselves when they purchase a garment: “someone made that.”  It is one step in the right direction against the flow of a disposable lifestyle, and appreciation for hard work.  You’re not just passing on a skill, you are passing on values.

When they say to themselves “someone made that” they will begin to ask questions, like “who made that?” and “where was this made?”  These questions that mass markets want to sweep under the rug are ones that begin here.  They begin on a couch, with a child and some knitting needles.  Maybe they won’t know how to knit to get a job.  But they will need to know how to value workers if they become a supervisor.  They will need to understand sourcing if they will be a buyer (or a consumer for that matter).  Knitting involves math, counting, geometry, design, fine motor skills…the list could go on.  That’s why several countries teach it in their public schools.

In our family, we do “read aloud” books with our older kids after the little kids go to bed.  We have recently been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series.  My kids really love this time.  However, my oldest boy has the hardest time sitting still.  We don’t make him sit for his schoolwork if he doesn’t want to.  He actually thinks better in motion.  Many kids and adults do.  We’ve learned when sitting in church he likes to stretch a rubber band around his wrist.  He sits better when his hands are busy.

You could say I was the same way.  I remember when I was a child, I would sit on the bed with my sister, talking about something, and I would fidget with the quilt on the bed.  I would rub it with my nails and pick at the stitches, and gently rip them out, bit by bit.  I didn’t mean to be destructive, but my hands needed something to do when we were just talking and I did it without thinking.  It drove her crazy.

As an adult, I have torn up hems of my skirts in the same manner when sitting through something still.  I do much better with knitting needles in my hands.  It allows me to concentrate while sitting.  So I know where my son is coming from.  Knitting is a great exercise for those with attention issues.  It allows us to “stay in motion” while sitting and enables concentration for what we are hearing.

Here’s a look on the upcoming series on Knitting Kids that will post weekly on Fridays this summer:

Part I – Why Knit (that’s this one)
Part II – Getting Ready (supplies and considerations)
Part III – Using Poems and Stories to teach
Part IV- Learning Units
Part V – Kids Patterns