Are There Monsters Living at Your House?

Are Monsters Living at Your House?

This summer, for the first time, we offered knit and crochet camps for kids. It was a lot of fun to decide what we were going offer, but perhaps our monster camp was the best one!

Teaching kids to knit can’t be much different than adults, can it? Their attention spans are shorter, and it’s a bit more hands on. But when kids catch on, watch out! Within a day our first campers didn’t even need a reminder lesson. The pulled out their monster-to-be and began knitting!

Casting on is one of the hardest things to learn and to remember, so that step was done for them. I held their hands in mine to demo the stitches and show them how to move the needles. My hands were like training wheels, when I let go, off they flew! One held her right needle against her chest for stability, the other pulled her right needle up and over the top of her left needle when she pulled her stitch off. I loved how each one found their own special technique.  

We also used a little poem to help remember the steps:

Go in through the front door
Jump over the fence
Come back out the front door
Jump off the fence

 

It wasn’t all about knitting though.  

We talked about our favorite candy – lollipops with gum and chocolate, about pets – cats (got to have more than one) and dogs, and about the features of dragons – do they have wings? What about tails? Music, older annoying brothers, whales and sharks and reason to be afraid of the ocean.  

We went for scavenger hunts in the shop and planned our next project. Probably a cat, of course, but maybe a fox?  

We ALL had so much fun! Sitting with kids and knitting together was AWESOME! Listening to their conversations make you feel young again. Maybe we should offer a Monster Camp 2, this time for adults? Everyone needs a monster in the house, don’t they?

P.S. Did you know a blue whale is as long as our shop and just as tall as the ceiling? Something to ponder then next time you visit.