Wednesday, August 16, 2006

It's all adding up

Well, sort of .

I can sew and knit. I am no seamstress, but I can sew on Brownie badges, follow a pattern and have been known to make a few fancy dress costumes with reasonable success and no pattern, including a ladybird. I can cast on and off, knit, purl, increase, decrease, have been known to use a circular needle and follow a simple pattern. Simple being the operative word here!

Now, on my parents recent visit up here, Grandma decided to teach her second grandchild to knit, having taught #1 last November. Interesting thought.

#1, Rhiannon, is a little awkward with the needles, but can knit quite nicely now, reasonable tension, few mistakes and I've taught her to purl, which she is getting to grips with.

#2, Aedan, holds the needles beautifully. Apparently, he can't count. He assured me yesterday I didn't need to check his knitting, "'Cos I've counted my stitches and I've still got twelve."

So, after they'd gone to bed, I thought I'd have a little peek at his masterpiece. When I counted, there were fourteen stitches. I counted again. Nope, still fourteen, but that's a huge improvement on eighteen... I can't fault his enthusiasm and we will persevere, but it could take a while and pinch of patience, not one of my strong points. Atleast it is still growing. I just can't help making up a couple more rows after correcting his mistakes, so he doesn't feel too crestfallen and defeated. I try to do it when he's not around, so he doesn't know how much is my work and how much is his.

Thanks for that, Grandma!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ignore all the obsessive "Knitting is the New Black" hype plastered all over Blogland. It's great that children learn to create something from scratch. There is something immensely satisfying about converting a ball of yarn into something someone can wear. So go Rhiannon and Aedan!

Louise said...

I feel a beautiful pair of doll scarves coming on! They're enjoying it and it keeps them quiet for a short while, especially on a drab, grey, wet day like today! Roll on school, next Tuesday, yippee!