It's official

My oldest kid is a knitter.

I had tried to teach him a few times in the past, but this summer, one of his day camps featured classes in Fiber Arts. He learned how to knit and purl, and used some of my leftover yarn to practice. I was shocked by how quickly he became comfortable with the motion and by how even his stitches are. He whizzed through a washcloth (see how diabolical I am? extra incentive to actually use the washcloth while bathing), not even batting an eyelash at the garter stitch edging, and started a hat:



This is some yarn I dyed and he asked if he could use it. The hat is nearly ready for the decreases and I have no doubt he'll manage those easily. I'm trying to convince him to go halvies with me on a sweater for him: I'll do the front and back if he does the sleeves...

A newly-minted knitter

Yesterday, Elvis learned to knit. He has been asking me for a while, and we've tried it a few times before that never seemed to take, but yesterday afternoon, worn down by all the sick people in my house (Elvis has strep, Tom has ... something icky and nasty but we're hoping it's not N.'s pneumonia), I pulled out a ball of chunky crap yarn and some child-friendly needles. Ably assisted by Kids Knitting, he was soon fascinated and produced this:


His first garter-stitch swatch. That's one for the scrapbook...

Just a few hours later, he had graduated to this:


Hah! Only kidding. His later squares still look like the first one, but he's enjoying it and getting better. And what nicer way could there be to spend a Sunday afternoon?