Sweetness, now 6, has recently been asking me to teach her crochet. On Tuesday, happy circumstance led to my having extra yarn and a hook with me.
Now, many people will start children on a larger hook and larger yarn – I’m not always of the option that those choices are the best answer. Sweetness ended up with a size D yarn and a non-splitty multicolored sock yarn. The multi-color because it was easier to see the individual stitches, the smaller hook and yarn because… her hands are small. A larger hook and yarn wasn’t comfortable for her to use.
I worked a row of foundation crochet for her to work off of, and started her on double crochet. Why double crochet instead of single? Double crochet has more of a rhythm; at least when I teach it. (Yarn over, into the “V”, yarn over, out of the “v”, yarn over, pull through two loops, yarn over, pull through two loops. After every step you yarn over.)
One of the luxuries of small children is that I could sit Sweetness on my lap (with adults this is a lot harder to do). At first, I fed the yarn and held the fabric while she manipulated the hook. When she felt comfortable, she took over holding the fabric – I was still feeding the yarn. We worked for a half an hour. Sweetness could have kept going, but I wanted her to leave on a good note, and her sister, Light, was getting impatient to have her playmate back.
Yesterday Sweetness and I continued, reviewing the stitch, talking about what happens when she “drops her loop.” Sweetness’ relief when I showed her that she couldn’t have a dropped stitch the same way she could in knitting was comic. She’s gotten pretty solid – by today she had worked a row of stitches on her own before getting mixed up about which direction she was going. Her sister also stepped on the yarn and broke it.
The best part about all of this, for me? Like many of my beginning students, I gave Sweetness a locking stitch marker to keep her stitches from unraveling when she isn’t using them. (I love locking stitch markers.) Unlike my beginning students, I told her “The first one is free, but if you want another one, it’s 25 cents.” (I figured a little financial incentive would help her not loose it.)
“25 Cents! With four of those, I could buy an Ice Cream at Ikea!” was Sweetness’ response.
Now, every time I look at my stitch markers, I can only think about how many ice creams I could buy at Ikea.
