Knitty Business

A month or so ago, Little Lady came home from school with a book she'd chosen from the school library. It was called "Made By Me" by Jane Bull, an author we already know and love. She was very excited by this book and spent day after day reading it cover to cover. She took it to bed with her. She made notes from it. And finally she declared that she really, really, really wanted to learn to knit. More than anything in the whole wide world, she wished to knit.

Truthfully I was not too keen on the idea of attempting to assist her with knitting. Knitting is quite a long way out of my creative comfort zone. I'm not very experienced with the sticks. Hooks yes. But sticks? Uh-uh. Well that's to say that I can knit, and indeed I used to knit a lot as a teenager. I used to knit myself gloves and jumpers and although I cannot quite believe it now, I once knit a cardigan for myself with a cable running up the front. A cable!!! Me doing cabley things with knit sticks, it seems incredible!

Now as well as knitting, this book also covers embroidery and sewing and has some really sweet projects in it.

The sewing pages are a true delight :: beautifully presented and very inspiring.

I loved almost every one of the sewing ideas and would have been thrilled if LL had chosen one of them to have a go at. In fact I even tried to persuade her in this direction by buying her a small bundle of coloured felt squares from a local shop. I enthused a lot about the pretty things she could sew for herself. But to no avail. It was knitting that she had really, really, really set her heart on.

Her desire to learn and her wonderful enthusiasm won me over in the end, and I made her a promise that I would help her learn to knit.

I managed to find some small childs knitting needles in a local shop, and we were all set. We would start out making a small knitted purse, just like the ones on page fifty six. The book has some very good step by step instructions and photographs to explain it all, and without too much trouble we learnt to cast on. When it came to the business of actually knitting I found that amazingly I still remembered how to do it. So between the book and myself, Little Lady was taught the basics. She is a fast learner, and before long she was confident enough to do it without my help.

We spent a truly fabulous morning together :: it was half term holiday and J had taken the boys out for the day leaving us girls at home to do girly yarny stuff together. I was working on The Secret Project (no word yet on when I'll be able to ta-dah that with you, am still waiting for News), and Little Lady was fulfilling her Greatest Wish. I wish you could have seen her, heard her, witnessed the pure joy as her little bit of knitting grew and grew. She kept saying over and over that she couldn't belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeve she was Actually Knitting. I was completely thrilled for her. And I was perilously close to tears...you know how some moments in life seem to become unexpectedly MonuMENtal, even though in essence they are so little? This was one of those big little moments.

Little Lady and her knitting were inseparable for a while. She did it last thing at night and first thing in the morning. She took it with her everywhere and she worked row after row of pretty good knitty. I hoicked back a dropped stitch from time to time, and sorted out some mysterious extra stitches that appeared, but mostly she just managed to do it without help and I felt so proud of her!

Over the past month or so, she worked steadily away at it and we kept on measuring as it grew. It began to get very exciting as she neared the end. Then on Saturday afternoon, she sat on the sofa and declared she would knit four more rows and then it would be Ready To Stitch.

The stitching up of the purse was fun, and she did most of it herself. She stitched on a button, then made a little "finger crochet chain" to form the button loop, then whhhoooooooped with delight when she realised she'd finally finished!!

It was FAB!!!

The little purse is well loved and well used, it's been much showed-off and much admired. And it's the perfect size for holding her lip gloss. Cool.

So that's the story of how Little Lady learnt to knit age six and three quarters.

She's already started her next project (a little blue owl, a present for Daddy to brighten up his work desk).

One FO and a WiP already on the go, that's my girl ♥

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 Edited to add :: a note from Little Lady............

a big thank you for all of your lovley comments, and i realy apreasheat all your lovely thauts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOP TIP!be confident about your work and it turns out lovley,i am really exited about my owl

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Comments

[Heather]

It's because she is awesome :)

[Anne]

Congratulations to the LL and you!

Knitting is just single crochet - but with two needles !

Being a knitter, I think of Crochet as just knitting, but with one needle.

(Anything to get my head around things LOL!)

[Jude]

Aw, bless her. My "little girl" was 23 before I finally managed to convince her to knit. And then she chose a cardigan in 4 ply mohair! :-D It's still waiting to be finished, although she has completed lots of other projects meanwhile. If only there had been a lovely book like that all those years ago. What a very proud Mummy you should be. Well done Little Lady. Jude.x

[yenni]

What a sweet story! Congratulations for Daughter and for Mom also :)

[Dot]

Awww! and wow! what a clever little girl, you'll be making a quilt together in no time Lucy! xx

[tinajo]

That´s so sweet - and she´s WAY ahead of me! :-D

[E]

I love this, such a clever girl. Her purse is fab, I could do with something similar to keep my lip gloss in!

[Victoria]

I'm a knitter through and through and never not have some sort of knitting with me wherever I go, so it warms my heart to see your little lady learning the craft...my niece turns 6 in June and has been bugging me for at least 2 years to learn 'the knit sticks' as she calls them...I think her time is coming to. keep up the knit sticks!

[Lara]

Aaaaaw, this post made me :) So sweet!!! I hope that when we have children, I'll be able to do crafty things with them.

[Mary Grace McNamara]

That's something she will never forget for as long as she lives! Her purse turned out just beautiful and I am sure she will be knitting up a storm before long! Good for her, and good for you too for not letting your dislike of knitting hold her back! What a pair you two will make in the yarn shops!

MGM

[Melissa Langer]

oh my gosh!
she did an amazing job!
her stitches are perfect!
your post gave me goosebumps!
what a wonderful family you are!
xoxoxo
Melissa

[Andrea at Apples and Pears]

Wow! Well done Little Lady!!! My mum taught me to knit when I was around that age and I am so thankful that she did. I have enjoyed a long, long love affair with all things yarn. The little purse is really, really good :)

[Lynda M O]

Very cool, Lucy. My mom taught me to knit at about that age and I still remember the day. She knit Barbie clothes for us by the tote case full: business suits, bikini, countless cardigans and pants, skirts, turtleneck sweaters.... Your daughter is well on her way to being a lifelong fiber-lover.

[Carole]

Ah bless Lucy that is so sweet. What a clever little girl.
Love Carole from Rossendale xxx

[Rosiehearts]

Oh how sweet, bless her. I remember when I was taught how to knit by my nan. I remember when and where! It's not something I do now, sewing is my thing taught to me by my mum.
Well done you for teaching her.....she will remember that when she is older and look back with fond memories too x

[Ana]

What a lovely child! She makes crafts very well already!!

Thanks for sharing!

[Levineke]

I taught my son how to knit when he was seven. He picked it up very quickly and made a beautiful scarf. But then we were stuck for other simple things for him to make so his enthusiasm waned :(
Now that winter is coming, hopefully we can find another project and get him started again. I love the purse - so cute.
l
x

[Sarah]

Well done to both of you. That is the most lovely story. I hope to teach my little neice and maybe my son lots of crafty pursuits as they grow older, you're little one has learnt a life long skill that will hopefully bring her much happiness.

[Joanna]

Brilliant job Little Lady! Well done. I taught the children next door to knit over the summer - they wanted to make scarves and I love it when they knock on the door and ask if they can come in and do their knitting! I thought it cool that the little lad aged 11 wanted to knit! Its great passing it on to the next generation of crafters xx

[Claire Smith]

Ooooh Lucy, that takes me back to when I was 6 and my great auntie Ellie taught me how to kniw. It was a little red egg cosy.

I thought I was soooo clever.

Well done LL fabulous job, this is the start, how exciting and that owl is to cute, am sure dad is going to love it.

[camilla]

hi! im a 12 year old girl who just love to knitt and crochet, i just have to LL knitting looks really good! the first thing i knitted was a blanket (it look alot worse than LL purse) and now i knitt and chrochet all the time. hope LL has fun knitting!! (it sounds like she will..)
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camilla

[boo textiles]

what a wonderful post. I can't imagine how proud you are and how happy your daughter is. I loved learning to knit and I'm a real advocate for passing on homemaking and craft skills. They are sooo rewarding and soooo useful. Thanks for sharing. xx

[Anne]

Such a beautiful post Lucy, and well done to you both. Little Lady has done a fabulous job and just between you and me, I think her knitting is better than mine. :)
Thank you for sharing.
Anne xx

[Annekids]

You can tell that she has got your talent. Very clever girl who did a great job! Love the book! (oh, and your blog too (-; )

[Catherine]

Brilliant! Well Done Her!! She should be very, very proud of herself! Cx