Now this really makes this mother kvell. ¬†I’ve been meaning to show this picture to you for a couple of days, but you know how it goes…
Yes, that is my son, and yes, he is knitting.  ALL. BY. HIMSELF!!!  I know!
That was while my folks were on the cruise. ¬†Sunday evening, date must be 1/18, after a long day, I sat down with the kids to watch some tv before bed. ¬†I pulled out my knitting to relax and that’s when Kat declared the she wanted to knit too. ¬†I dug out her project bag and she got busy. ¬†That was when Alex decided that he really wanted to learn to knit too. ¬†Ways back I bought two sets of the shorter Lion Brand kid needles. ¬†Kat is using her and Alex decided they made far better weapons than instruments and as such, they’ve been misplaced for a while now. ¬†Kat generously donated her project for her brother to learn on. ¬†I know, she can be surprisingly nice when she isn’t being a beast 
Anyway, I sat him in my lap, held his hands as we went through the knitting steps. ¬†While I knit continental (and in the other direction from right needle to left), I’ve been teaching them the english/wrap method and in the standard direction. ¬†When they have better coordination and fine motor skills, we’ll work on coverting to continental, but for right now, it is easier. ¬†After maybe a row or two of garter stitch with no more than 30st each row, he declared that he knew how to do it but gave the project back to Kat.
The following day was MLK Day and I had off from work.  I took a trip to Michaels after dropping them at daycare and picked him up his very own needles and  a skein of Patons to work with.  That night, I gave him a quick review and he set off on his own as you see above.  
And just to show I still knit, here’s the progress on my beret:
At some point last night I decided that while hand piecing quilting bits is nice and authentic, it was using up my precious train/ferry knitting time. ¬†Not to mention that I lost my leather thimble on the train last night. ¬†Something less likely to happen when knitting on the train (though we won’t mention the dpn I lost in the escalator at the Secaucus Train Station a few years back). ¬†And factor in that I have another kit to make for Alex, and have now cut for a throw for myself, if I handpiece all of this, I’ll never get anywhere. ¬†I’ll still hand quilt, but the piecing I think is better done in a few nights on my nifty Singer rather than a few months on the train, and this way I’ll still get some knitting done
Craft on!
8 responses so far ↓
1 --Deb // Feb 3, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Look at those little kids, getting all grown up!
2 "s"andi // Feb 3, 2009 at 10:44 pm
How precious Alex looks! Leave it to the little man to declare he knows how to do it, then give it to the woman, huh? Cute little button he is! Look forward to your next post.
Your sista from anotha motha
3 misa // Feb 4, 2009 at 10:37 am
My son went through a knitting faze in first grade, it was so sweet and made my heart go pitter patter. He was most into finger knitting, have you tried that? I see you’re working on selbu modern, I’ve got that on my queue too. What yarn are you using?
4 Hillary // Feb 4, 2009 at 11:04 am
Aw, he looks so cute with his needles. My eldest keeps teasing me – picking up the needles knitting a few rows and then putting it down again. I keep waiting for her to really get hooked.
5 Amy // Feb 4, 2009 at 2:01 pm
That is so awesome! My son “knits” with one of those spool looms, but I haven’t tried teaching him to use needles (I’m worried about the needles as weapons thing too). Anyway, after seeing this, I’m inspired to see if he wants to graduate to real knitting
6 Deborah // Feb 4, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I love the sight of a boy knitting. I think we’d have more peaceful world if men would knit!
7 Daniele // Feb 4, 2009 at 2:57 pm
How wonderful! It’s the mother-knitting-mojo that does it, every time!
8 Chris // Feb 5, 2009 at 10:35 am
Well, that’s just adorable!