The next generation of knitters ....

It's school holidays in NSW and Epping library - and the others in Hornsby Shire - have some school holidays activities. Two of my grandchildren are booked in to learn balloon twisting, and magic and juggling. Last holidays we went to "Backyard Bugs" and it was a joy to behold children from 7 to 12 with enormous praying mantis' and stick insects crawling up their arms, legs, faces and hair. The Parks and Wildlife person who ran this session really enthused these little ones.

So, it was with great excitement and some trepidation, that the librarians suggested we might like to do a session on learning to knit for 7 to 12 year olds. The session booked out very quickly and 12 little people - all girls - turned up, some looking rather scared, to see what we had to offer. The session was called Knitterbugs after the Victorian schools program of the same name. Details of the book of the same name can be found here. I can thoroughly recommend this book.

We talked a little bit about knitting - the knit and the purl stitch - and what you can make from garter stitch and just a simple piece of knitting - bookmarks, wristbands, wristwarmers, fingerless gloves, and the origami rabbit. Of course we had a number of samples to pass around for everyone to try on.

Then it was time to start with the knit stitch rhyme - "In through the front door, run around the back, out through the window, off jumps Jack! " - each child was given a laminated sheet with illustrations of how to do the knit stitch on one side and how to cast off on the other with the cast off rhyme - "Knit yourself over, invite a friend too; leap frog over, lie down Sue". Much excitement as each child was given their kit - short 4.5mm Birch needles like these: [Photo from Birch site]

More to come - check back later in the week ....