Boys Can So Knit!

Remember that "no knitting at school" rule? I never asked if that meant I couldn't teach knitting at school. My penchant for doing first and asking forgiveness later led me to agree immediately when two of my 8th grade boys asked for knitting lessons last week. How can someone who works at a school say no to someone who is seeking new knowledge? Seriously. A basketball player and a member of the track team wanted to learn to knit. It is my duty as an educator to share my knowledge of the knitterly arts with those who seek to learn! Right? Agree with me here!

J and P and I set up on Friday a time and I smuggled in needles and some worsted weight yarn for them. To save time, I cast on the stitches ahead of time. We needed to be able to get started right away. The boys did great! I took a photo on my cell phone, and managed to email it to myself. Hopefully you can see that their skills, especially P's, were way beyond what I expected.

"This is kind of like meditation," one said. "This uses way different muscles than track," the other said. We talked about fine motor skills vs. gross motor skills and how knitting might open up other brain pathways. "I could use some help, I'm trying to set a new pole vault record at an indoor track meet tonight."

Guess what? I found out Monday he broke the record! We meet for knitting...er... group counseling again tomorrow.