Forrest knew he wanted to learn to knit as soon as he entered the store. “I’d like to knit a sweater!” he said to me. I said it sounded pretty ambitious, but anything is possible. His grandmother Carole had come to buy some Artfibers yarns to make items to sell. I could see that she had passed her ‘focus’ gene down to ‘almost seven’ year old Forrest when we sat down for his first lesson.

His first knitwear design was actually a scarf in 3 beautifully chosen colors of Satori and Kyoto yarn. I showed him the cast on technique and he said “is it like tying my shoes – because I haven’t learned that yet.” I cast on about 16 stitches slowly so he could see that process, then showed him each subtle step to making a knit stitch. I gave him the needles and guided him a little on the first few stitches of his own.

When he said he thought he could knit without my help after that I was skeptical, but he did seem to understand and hold everything right, so, like teaching someone to float and swim, I let go of him… and he knit the rest of the row by himself! He got a good sample done and we tied it on his wrist as a bracelet. “I think I’ll knit an alligator after this.” he said and I agreed that anything could be knit.

While I split cones of yarn for his grandmother’s purchase, we all had a great time talking, telling stories and fantasizing about all of the things that one could knit, and I suggested a boat! Forrest thought a moment then said “Why not build a boat out of wood? I think a knitted boat would sink!” I had a response for him because my husband and I had already talked this over. “A knitted boat would be strong but light. Instead of making something from pieces where you have a possible weak point at every join, a knitted boat could be made with one continuous strand and have no weak points. And to keep it from sinking, you’d just have to cover it with resin.” I explained what resin was when he asked and could tell he was tucking that bit of information away in his vast little brain for future use, like so many other things.

Yarn info:  Kyoto Satori

Tags: design, learning, yarntasting

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