Muddy Sheep
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Patterns
  • Tutorials
  • About
  • Northern Flurries Shawl

Never work with children or animals...

13/1/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
My children have watched me knitting since almost the moment they were born. Even in those early days when my whole world had turned into an alien landscape involving more nappy-changing than I ever thought possible, endless hours on the sofa attempting to feed, and hormone levels so erratic that sobbing with joy followed tears of despair as seamlessly as if they'd been joined with mattress stitch. Even then I would still try and find time to knit a row most evenings.

My eldest started asking to learn to knit at about three, and I foolishly tried to show him.  He has asked and we've tried again about once a year since, until he properly picked it up when he was about eight.  I know there are other ways to get young children going with yarn - pompoms,  finger knitting and knitting dollies - and we did make pompoms, but I didn't know about finger knitting then, and never quite got the point of the knitting dolly.

What I hadn't expected was the sheer frustration of the whole thing.  We'd sit down with yarn and needles and I'd demonstrate: "Through the front door, around the back..." He'd start, go wrong, I'd say, "No, not like that" all nice and calm, but it seems the damage was done.  Within minutes he'd be throwing it down and saying he couldn't do it, with me not able to understand why he wouldn't just try again and having a full-on frustration tantrum.  Yes, I mean me.

So the next time he asked to learn, I would tell myself to adjust my expectations.  Of course he wasn't going to be able to knit perfectly, he may never learn to knit at all, but that wouldn't be the end of the world, the point is to enjoy it.  Even so, I didn't usually make it more than ten minutes before pronouncing through gritted teeth that I was "just going to make a cup of tea."

But both boys learnt in the end and between them they've produced a couple of scarves for their teddies, and they're sporadic, but keen, knitters.  I still do emergency rows to get things back on track - once one of them managed to turn ten stitches into twenty in a single row!  But I have learnt to relax about the whole thing, and try never to rip back their work if there is any possibility of saving it.
Picture
...except maybe if they're not looking!
Picture
2 Comments
Kim link
25/1/2014 12:19:59 pm

Haha. Your post made me laugh! Letting go and accepting the less than perfect attempt that most kids are capable of is a really hard thing to do! My kids make their beds and I am beyond grateful, but my decorating OCD forces me to go in and pull the bedding taut and fluff the pillows while they are at school! :)

Reply
Wendy link
28/1/2014 02:29:32 am

Your kids make their beds! I can hardly get mine to put their plates in the dishwasher. Must try harder!
Wendy x

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Yarnsub
    Find your perfect substitution

    Subscribe...

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    follow us in feedly
    Follow on Bloglovin
    Muddy Sheep on Pinterest

    Blogs I read
    Attic 24
    Knitsofacto
    LIttle Cotton Rabbits
    Mason-Dixon Knitting
    Planet Penny
    Poppy in Stitches
    Purl About Town
    Woolwinding

    Archives

    December 2016
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013


    Categories

    All
    Cake
    Children Knitting
    Contoured Intarsia
    Garter Stitch
    Gift Knitting
    Intarsia
    Knitting Group
    Knitting In Public
    Technique
    The Cat
    The Fish Blanket
    Yarnsub

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.