Flipper actually learned to knit many years ago, I think when he was 6.  He got a few rows done of what he intended to be a pillow for the cats, and then it was forgotten.

At the same time, the cushion I had started was also left aside, never to be picked up again.  My foray into learning to knit came to a halt.  But I’ve always wanted to get back into it, and also to get Flipper interested again as well.

With all my Waldorf research lately, of course knitting came up again, in a big way.  According to Donna Simmons of Christopherus, if you do no other handwork at all, at least do knitting.  With Flipper’s issues of focus, hand strength and coordination, patience, perfectionism, electronic/plastic toy addictions, knitting seemed like just the ticket!

So I picked up a Waldorf-based book of knitting for children, which includes rhymes for remembering the different stitch techniques as well as some simple projects — little toy lambs, elephants, horses, dolls, etc.

My plan has been to start including knitting in his ’schoolwork’ starting tomorrow, Monday.  So this weekend while he was at his dad’s, I pulled out the box of knitting supplies and got to work re-learning the techniques myself.  There was a skein of fun fluffy pink yarn, so I decided to work on a scarf for Pomme as practice.

I also had my “hook” for Flipper all set.  On Friday, we volunteered at a fundraiser bake/craft sale.  There were some fluffy handknit scarves, and Flipper wanted a blue one.  I told him he could knit his own, and he thought I was joking at the time.

Tonight, he saw me working on Pomme’s scarf.  “Is that a scarf???”  “Yes.”  “Cool!”  Now here I’m expecting him to say “can you make one for me, too?” and I would answer, “I could, but instead I’ll teach you to make one by yourself.”

What he actually said was:  “Can you teach me to knit a blue scarf myself?”

Hallelujah. That part was easy, anyway.

In fact, he wanted to start right away.  So I gathered up the book, some needles, and some practice yarn — with the promise that when he’s got the hang of it, we’ll go to the craft store and he can pick out his favourite yarn for his scarf.  And we started casting on.

Right away we had problems.  He kept wanting to lie down on his right elbow, which obviously can’t work.  He kept trying to use his left hand to do the work.  And whenever there was a problem, he would throw it down and cry!  I had warned him ahead of time that casting on was the hardest part, and that it would get easier after this.  But he kept crying, and wouldn’t let me help him, just kept trying it his way and having the same problems repeatedly.

We ended up having a talk about how you need to keep trying, not everything is easy on the first (or second or tenth) try, but that doesn’t mean you give up.   And that you need to let the people who know how to do something, help you.  I came this close to losing my cool and blowing up at him, but thankfully I kept my self-control this time.

Eventually, of course, he started to get it, and it’s just mind-boggling how his mood changed.  “Oh, I’m getting the hang of this now.  Heh, this is pretty easy.  Look mom!  I can do it!”  Oy vey.

We took a break when it was time for his bedtime routine, and took it up again for his quiet time.  He had cast on 25 stitches so we decided to start a row of knit.  This, of course, was much easier than casting on, so things went along swimmingly.  When it was time to go to bed, he asked if he could continue knitting while I read to him.  I figured, why not?  It’s better than him fidgeting, squirming, biting his covers and cracking his knuckles constantly.

When I told him that knitting was going to be part of his schoolday tomorrow, he was excited.

He knit in bed until he started to get drowsy.   Before he put it down, though, I had noticed every so often him mumbling to himself “get the sheep… off we leap… under the gate…” — from the verses used to learn the stitches.  It works!

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