Knitting Bug

We've got the knitting bug at my house!

My support group, Homeschooling Friends, holds Friday Fun classes each week--a sort of cooperative school situation where we teach each other's kids and enjoy being together for a few hours on Friday mornings. Well, one of the moms is teaching the kids to knit, and I sneaked a peek in her class, and then got hooked myself. I wasn't quite sure how to hold my needles, or what to do, but with some effort, I learned to knit and I am having a great time with it. The learning curve is pretty steep at first, and it can be easy to get discouraged, but if you can get the kids (and yourself) to just stick with it awhile, suddenly you are knitting like a pro!

I taught the rest of my kids to knit now, and we are all enjoying cozy evenings with all our needle clicking as we visit and knit. This is really fun! Another plus, it gives moms a reason to sit down and rest for a few minutes during the day without feeling guilty--I am still being productive!

(My daughter Emily shows her finished product above)

So far, we are making cotton washcloths (for dishes, or bath). Using bamboo needles (rather than the aluminum ones I remember from when I was a kid) has really made knitting so much more enjoyable. The bamboo needles are not so slippery, nor so unyielding as the metal ones. I used size 8 and that seems to be a good size to learn on. Before we got each of my knitters a set of bamboo needles, we just used bamboo kitchen shish-kebab skewers, or chopsticks, sharpening the end of each "needle" a little in a pencil sharpener. You can even knit on a pencil if you want to. That works too!

I bought 100% cotton yarn (such as Sugar 'n Cream brand) to make a washcloth. If you buy one ball, it will make 2 washcloths for just about $2 (on sale). Just cast on 36 stitches and knit every row, back and forth, until you have a nice square. It is really easy and fun. And the resulting washcloths are supreme! Wouldn't that make a great gift with a bar of soap?

Here's my finished products so far:

I can recommend a good and easy how-to knitting book, if you want to learn:

Knitting (Kids Can Do It)

Have fun!