I came in the other day to find both my girls knitting, keen to learn the skills from their mother, with her patently showing them how to do it.
Crafts have always been in my mental health tool kit. To create something, anything, is powerful and gives you such a sense of achievement. It's almost like our hands are hardwired to create things, I often feel very lucky that I get to make things with my hands every day of the week.
They're a long way of knitting me a pair of gloves, but it's great to see them learning new skill that will stay with them for life.
Do you knit? If you do, who taught you?
Oh yes, I knit! I'm knitting a temperature scarf for me and a scarf-of-many-colours for a homeless person at the moment. I try and knit for a while before bedtime to soothe my mind and take time to mentally sort the day's activities. But I can't knit gloves!
ReplyDeleteKnitting for the homeless is a great thing to do! I alway sread before I go to sleep to take my mind off things. I think we can all be too switched on these days and it's great to go back to something like this.
DeleteOnly dishcloths, yet my sister can knit anything - somewhere I missed out on learning anything other than casting on, knit stitch and casting off.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to your daughters
A dishcloth is still a very useful item though!
DeleteI was taught to knit aged around 6, in my first school class I remember taking the misshapen holey piece of work to show my teacher. I am 73 and still knit, for all the reasons you give maybe wool and needles should be available on the NHS.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest daughter has some knitting with more holes than it should have, but that's how we all learn. I like the idea of prescribing knitting.
DeleteCrafting fills your lives with so much joy, and the sense of achievement on finishing items for gifts is brilliant. I never sit and do nothing, even with TV on I am knitting or crocheting. Your children have so many brilliant life skills.
ReplyDeleteI watch so much less TV these days as I like to write fiction in the evenings. 's so lucky that my days are filled with my craft and I have so many outlets for it. I can't knit though!
DeleteLearned from about age 4 and will knit anything, anywhere.... from patterns in a multitude of languages and formats. The only one I have struggled with was Shetland lace from a pattern purportedly written in 'English', using terms so foreign to describe familiar techniques performed in unusual ways, that every time I put it down I would have to relearn the whole language again when I picked it up. Encourage your son to learn too - or at least introduce him to net making or similar - transportable crafts that you can almost (and should) carry about in a pocket.
ReplyDeleteMy son is keen, he has done some sewing and things with his mum, he will almost certainly learn, especially as his nan really likes knitting as well. I like the idea of a pocket craft. At the moment we take cards everywhere and play them together if we have down time!
DeleteKev, I am a great believer in doing something craftworthy with your hands. Our Youngest, Nighean Dhonn, taught herself to knit and can do so rather well. The older two like to paint pictures.
ReplyDeleteAll three of mine love drawing. The other day my middlest found an old notebook of mine from when I was her age and she drew my cartoon like drawings out again. Was really lovely. Not sure when I stopped drawing though as I always loved it growing up.
DeleteKev, mine all loved drawing as well at one time.
DeleteFunny how we put down things we enjoy for no real reason that we can think of.
Oh, how lovely! My daughter has expressed interest in knitting, but I'm waiting for a bit, so she can mature- she's seven, but she doesn't quite have the patience for it yet. I'll be thrilled to teach her when she does! I started learning when I was twelve, from a Better Homes and Gardens craft book. No one in my family knew how to knit, and I thought it would be fun. I didn't really take off with it until I was about 19, however, and these days, I mostly stick to simple projects. :)
ReplyDeleteMine have always been deperate to learn. My eldest has a mini weaving kit she will just get out and do and before christmas they would both get their sewing machines out and start making things when I was out in the workshop. Was lovely to come back into!
DeleteYes, I knit. My mother taught me when I was about 10-ish. It's good to have crafts to do. By the way, did you ever get to do any basketmaking with your willows?
ReplyDeleteBasket making is still so high on the list to do. This year I'm going to crop an area of willow for firewood and let it come back stronger hopefully. So far I've only been harvesting it for poles and for cooking sticks for scouts!
DeleteGood for your girls and your wife for taking the time to teach them to knit. My grandmother knit and tried to teach me when I was very young but sewing (on her treadle machine) was more to my liking. Then when I was in college, a gal in my dorm was a fanatical knitter and she taught me and I was off and have been knitting ever sense. I'd be lost without knitting to calm and center me. You are so right in that creating something, no matter what the medium, is very, very good for our souls!
ReplyDeleteThat's lovely to hear. I often wonder what will happen when these guys go off and do things when older. Will everyone just be looking at their phones instead? I can remember traveling and making friends by playing cards, I bet that won't happen so much now!
DeleteHi Kev, though not a knitter (oh how the Northern Gods would berate me if t'was so) I have learnt many of my skills from my late father. As well as skills with tools and the like he also taught me my work and life ethics.
ReplyDeleteAs for producing with your own hand, there is something reassuring and soothing about it, hopefully such skills are not to lost in future generations.
I think the Northern Gods would be fine with it. To create something is to celebrate them surely? I hope the skills aren't lost as well. I don't think they will be as lot of children are still brought up to do them.
DeleteI can remember clearly the day my mother sat me down and started to teach me how to knit a scarf for my teddy. I was probably three. She died when I was five after a very long illness. I knit all the time and find it very relaxing.
ReplyDeleteJo that put a lump in my throat, I love that you can remember that, I'm sure she'd be pleased that you still knit.
DeleteI'm an almost obsessed knitter, with a sizable stash of yarn. I remember asking my Nana (maternal grandmother) to teach me in 1975 when I was 10. I usually have several things "on the go" at once and always take a smallish piece to any appointments While others impatiently flick through and glare at their phones I sit calmly knitting away. Definitely a health boost at present as I am immunosuppressed. A male friend in Switzerland learnt to knit at school!
ReplyDeleteTake care and stay safe, Michelle in Wellington, New Zealand