From the article: Teaching Children to Knit
Teaching children to knit can be fun, but it can also be quite a frustrating experience. It is certainly an undertaking for which you'll want to gather a lot of advice from people who've successful taught kids to knit. Here, readers share their thoughts and what worked for them when teaching children (their own or other people's) how to knit. Share Your Tips
Grandma's Verse
- Grandma Laura taught me, "Put the man on the fence, put his hat on, twist his legs and knock him off." My childish tomboy mind rather dug the violence of the imagery but I'm not sure it's the way to go for all children.
- —Guest L
Circular Needles
- Why not start your child with circular needles. They can do anything that straight needles can do , plus you'll never loose one needle. And by all means, use wooden needles because they don't slide out of your work like metal or plastic.
- —Guest judyroe
First project!
- I like the idea of a first project being something more than just a swatch, unless there are enough swatches to make into a blanket, so that there is some purpose! A Niddy Noddy is a tool shaped a bit like a capitol H on it's side, and is for winding wool from a bobbin into a skein. It is of a known length and wool yardage is then easily calculated!
- —Guest becky
Tips for Teaching Children
- Give them circular needles to start with, so they are not constantly dropping the needles. A 16" or 24" in the US#6-9 range would work best.
- —Guest Norma
knitting rhyme
- through the fence catch the sheep bring 'em back over they leap
- —Guest forest
Tips for teaching children
- I started with a hook and then demenstrated to the 7 yr old with his rope, using my hand as the hook, pulling the new loop through the old loop. He caught on quickly then. Then I found finger knitting demos on you tube and taught the 5yr old how to knit on one finger. This time wrapping the yarn around his finger and lifting the old loop up over the new one and off the end of the finger. He decided he's making a coaster to set a glass/cup on. He finished a length about 4' long while knitting with us in my knitting group. I let him go and soon he was snugging up his stitches so they were uniform without further instruction. He was then thinking he wanted to switch to the hook, so I did tell him his work would be more even if he finished using the same technique he started with. He loves the attention he gets from his mom's and my friends so now he has something positive and productive to show off.
- —itmomw
