I'm Blessed

My kids are quickly realizing that this season in the season of Mommy gasping in delight and grabbing her camera every few minutes.  This season is so lush with color that I can barely stand it.  All the black and white months we get in the winter are the perfect foil for this season as it makes this already overload of color during the summer months seem even more vibrant.  Every other day I'm picking a crazy amount of strawberries--filling half our kitchen table in each picking.  These ripe berries are just amazing.  When I'm out in the strawberry patch, every time I move some leaves out of the way in search of berries, I'm nearly knocked over by all the red everywhere.  They are delicious, but truly eye candy as well!

Actually, I was driving home late in the afternoon last week, and was just soaking in the view of the light hitting the wet leaves that are just what I call "corduroy length" in the fields.  I cannot get the image of acres and acres of corduroy fabric out of my head this kind of year.

Anyway, I started saying, "Kids!  Isn't that gorgeous!  Look at how the light is hitting that field!  Isn't that gorgeous?  WE GET TO LIVE HERE!  This is just amazing!"

Then I drove the 1/2 mile home from there, grabbed my camera, and hauled all my kids back to the spot in the car to take the pictures.  I'm sure there was a collective eye roll inside the van, as they whispered, "There goes Mom again.  It's your turn to break her lens next."

I'm blessed.

Knitting Kids Part III - Using Poems and Stories

For those catching up, here are the first two posts in this series:

Part I - Why Knit

Part II - Getting Ready and General Rules

We often use a poem to teach kids to tie their shoes.  It's something about a rabbit going around a tree, and into a hole and coming up the other side.  Kids love visuals like this.  They love stories.  They love humor.

The traditional poem to teach kids how to knit goes like this:

In through the front door

Once around the back

Peek through the window

And off jumps Jack!

I think it's adorable.  I love it.  Like the rabbit going around the tree for tying shoes, Jack jumping off is the traditional rhyme for knitting.

Don't feel like it's the silver bullet, though.  I'm going to be honest and say my kids didn't get it.

"So this stitch was a front door and now it's a window?"

"What?"

"Who is Jack?  Is the needle Jack?  Which needle?  I thought that was the window.  Is that the new door?"

They do love poetry, and get full doses of it, but they just haven't caught on to this one.  They're not so much into Mother Goose as they are into Shel Silverstein.  So we chose to use a story.  I have no idea how this story got into my brain off the cuff, but my kids loved it and they remembered it, and really that's what matters.  

The robber goes into the bank

Grabs the gold

Walks out of the bank

Runs away

Then you can continue on with the story for the second row if you like.

Now the policeman goes into the robber's hideout

Confiscates the gold

Leaves the robber's hideout

Runs back to the police station to do paperwork.

Sure, it's not cute and catchy.  It's not elegant and doesn't rhyme.  But the kids think it's funny, therefore they remember it.

And that's the goal.

Any 4 part story will do.  

There are 4 parts to a knit stitch - 

1)going through the stitch the correct direction

2)wrapping the yarn around the needle

3)pulling the yarn out through the stitch

4)pulling the new stitch off of the left needle

This parts does not change no matter if your child is "picking" or "throwing" (I pick as a knitter, but I have found it is easier to teach the kids to throw the stitch.)  One of my kids is right handed and the other is left handed.  They learned the same.  It doesn't change.

-The story could be a unicorn putting her horn into a tree stump and rescuing a fairy princess held captive by an evil troll by wrapping her around her horn and then sneaking off and running away with her.

-The story could be a sharp pointy monster going his secret cave to get a noodle snack, and then leaving his hideout to take over the world now that he has a full stomach.

-The story could be a boy going into a library, grabbing a book, leaving the library, and going home to read it all afternoon.  (A mother can dream.)

-The story could be a kitten, sneaking into a mouse hole, grabbing a mouse, and then exiting and running off.

-The story could be a gold digger, mining in a stitch, finding some gold, leaving the tunnel/stitch, and bringing it to the bank.

Really, the sillier, and more elaborate you can make your story, the better.  Pick a topic or character that will catch your child's attention.  

Make it ridiculous, or at the very least full of action or danger.  Using a poem or a story breaks down the technicals of knitting into a language that the kids understand.  It taps into their vast imagination which is their genius.

These are just a few examples of using stories and humor to teach knitting to kids.  Do you have any examples of stories, or can you come up with any?  I'd love to hear what your imagination comes up with!

This Week

It's been a bit busy.  I think I have enough material for blogging to last me a month or so from just this week.

-Silje turned 10.  

-Elias and Solveig are attending preschool VBS this week.

-We're picking strawberries every other day like crazy.  The crop is huge and beautiful this year!

-We're trying to preserve or eat up these strawberries before they go bad.  Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, strawberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam…it's been busy.

-We had to take Missy to the vet to get her stitches out.  There's a story there.  It was an adventure.

-Our basement flooded.

-We lost a huge amount of our flock of laying chickens in a predator attack.  We had tied Missy up in the barn before her vet appointment in hopes of keeping her out of the mud and the wound clean.  The predators took their opportunity of Missy missing and took many.  We're not even sure how many yet.  Missy is so upset about it.  I can't even begin to tell you her stress level shown the morning after.

-There was a massive, scary funnel cloud in the sky, close enough to hurry us to the drying-out basement for an hour or so.  (It never touched down, and remained no closer than 10 miles north of us.)

-Knut is extremely busy on the farm, and nothing seems to be going right in that area this year, which is an added stress.

-One of our cats had kittens.  Only 2, but they are beautiful and doing well.  We've been looking for them, and David and Elias found them while cleaning out the summer kitchen (toy/garden tool building outside) as a surprise for me.  They have been named Cheetah and Posie.

I'm trying, and failing, and trying again, and again, and again to live in the moment, and enjoy these precious times these kids are giving me this summer, and not get swallowed up by activities.  I've been saying "no" so often to things that I'm questioning all of it.  Well, part of me questions saying "no" to activities.  The other part of me thinks I'm not saying it nearly enough.

One day, when I was feeling particularly defeated, Solveig came into the kitchen where I was preparing supper and asked me to hold her.  I picked her up, and she held my face about 1/2 inch from hers and said, "Dance with me."

"Rockin' Robin" happened to come on our Pandora station, which is Solveig's favorite song, and she can't stand not dancing through it.  So we danced.  These habits are important.  She saved my evening.

Those are the sorts of things I can say "yes" to and not question one bit.

Yarn Along

All the bath times, and sitting and chatting with Silje on her birthday, and stolen minutes here and there are beginning to add up, and this sweater is nearing the end.  I'm not optimistic about it getting done by next week, as it has been so tough to steal away moments, but I think it's close.  I also finished the yoke chart for another design, one that I've been working on for over a month.  I've been hashing through it, and fixing errors here and there, and I think I have it.  I had an epiphany that hit me during a rare afternoon when Knut was at home and I finally corrected the problems that had been floating around in the back of my brain.  Now I just need to complete the sleeve chart, which shouldn't be nearly as hard…I hope.  No really, it shouldn't.

For reading, we're still going through Narnia with Silje and David.  We've had a few late nights where we haven't been able to read, so it's slowed down to 3 chapters a week or so.  If you ask David, especially, he'll tell you how mad he is about how little it has been.  I know that shouldn't make me happy, but it does.  I like that he misses Narnia.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.

I'm Blessed

There's so many things to be grateful for this morning.  Our sweet oldest child is 10 today.

Ten. Years. Old.

I need a hug.  I'm so blessed with non-stop conversations with her lately.  She's been sorting through friends drama, and sibling drama, and growing up drama.  I'm so blessed that she comes to me with her drama.  I'm learning to treasure our late night talks.  How did I end up with such a wonderful child?  She's amazing.

That's all I'm going to write about that, or I'm going to be more of a blubbering mess today than I already am.

I'm so excited about strawberry harvest.  Silje wants a lemon cake with strawberries on top.  I've never made one, so that's on the agenda today to find and make.  I was out in the patch on Saturday picking a few ripe ones, and saw that nearly half of them were half red.  So this morning after we eat all of the birthday pancakes, we're headed out to the strawberry patch to see what we can find.

Solveig was up screaming and calling out so much last night.  I didn't fall asleep until 2am last night, and she woke up (herself, as well as Ingrid with all of her hollering) 3 more times before Knut woke me up for Silje's birthday breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and bacon.  You have no idea how intensely I am tired this morning.  She always does this about a day or two before our monthly chiropractic visit to correct our car accident injuries.  Our visit is scheduled for tomorrow, so it makes sense.

I'm so blessed with coffee.  I'm blessed with a husband who goes all out for breakfast for Silje on her birthday and still lets me sleep in a bit.  I'm blessed with chiropractic care for my children and myself.  We are blessed to be alive.

I'm blessed with flowers on the table nearly constantly now.  I love this time of year where there are flowers in abundance in our yard.  How cool is that?   I look forward to this flowering time of year so much!  I think I'll pick of bouquet of roses for Silje's room today.  There's some pretty ones that just opened yesterday.

How has God blessed you this last week?

Knitting Kids Part II - Getting Ready and General Rules

Don't forget to read last week's Part I of Knitting Kids.

You would think that as an obsessive knitter, and a knitting designer that teaching my kids would be pretty simple.  But the prospect of teaching each of them is daunting.  I love to knit.  I love to homeschool.  Yet, teaching them to knit has proved to be very difficult for me.  I’m a perfectionist in this department.  I tend to be overly critical about things I am passionate about, and always see ways to improve.  I wonder sometimes if knitting might be one of those things where one should not teach her own child, for safety’s sake so that no one gets strangled.  

And yet, I see no line of knitting teachers out my front door, waiting to teach my kids.

Now that I’ve taught my 2 oldest, and will soon start with my 3rd, I’ve learned a few things.  I’m applying a lot of advice that I’ve gotten at homeschooling conventions as well on teaching your own children.  Here’s my biggest things to keep in mind when starting to teach a kid to knit.

• Plan for one on one time.  If there are other little siblings around, or lots of distractions, it will quickly become frustrating for you.  Plan ahead and make the first few sessions a “date.”  Let them sit on your lap, or next to you on the couch.  The less their concentration is interrupted, the faster they will pick it up.

• Provide short, straight needles, or even a 12” circular needle.  The shorter the better.  As a basic rule of thumb the needles should not be longer than their elbow to wrist or it is much too cumbersome. There are different schools of thought on whether kids should start with metal or wooden needles, but if you're in a shop trying to decide pick wood.  Mine use metal because that's just what I had on hand.  I haven't met one person yet who would recommend kids start on plastic needles.  They're sticky and bendy, which ends up being frustrating.  So often, these are the needles provided in those colorful kids knitting "kits."  Just don't.  It's a recipe for frustration.

• Start with worsted, or aran weight yarn.  Also, as tempting as it may be, don’t use up the cheap acrylic yarn handed down from great-grandma, just because it’s practice yarn.  Believe me, I’m a big fan of hand-me-downs, and my kids rarely (or never) get the best of the best.  We make do, by used, go without.  I have made a bunch of cheap acrylic yarn blankets and they work fantastic.  To be honest I have an easier time crocheting with acrylic yarn than knitting with it.  But this was something my own knitting instructor was very firm about, and now that I have some teaching under my belt, I’ve come to strongly agree with her.  New knitters should always have real wool yarn.  There are 2 reasons for this.  First, it’s just more pleasant to handle, and it draws the knitter in.  It's not as scratchy as acrylic, and feels like you're petting an animal.  What child doesn't like petting animals?  Wool is more elastic, and easier on tense little fingers.  Second, wool is more forgiving.  The cheap acrylic will show every uneven stitch and bad tension most unpleasantly.  Real wool will be more forgiving, and leave a new knitter with a greater sense of accomplishment.  It doesn’t take much.  Spend the $6 or $8 dollars and get wool, or at least half wool.  If possible, let them pick it out, or get something variegated for fun.  

**I will add that once they have worked on their first 4" swatch, and want to move onto a washcloth, some cotton yarn will do.  However, this has not worked the best with my kids.  They have left some lessons in frustration when they keep losing their stitches.  The reason they keep losing their stitches is because cotton isn't as "sticky" as wool is.  Remember: wool is the most forgiving.  I cannot emphasize that enough.  It is by far the easiest place to start.  So only take this route if they are pretty excited about making a washcloth.

• I learned this from Andrew Pudewa, who was a violin teacher using the Suzuki method, and now teaches a writing program that my kids use:  say ten positive thing to the child for each correction.  Learning something new will require a lot of corrections, but correcting constantly will quickly make this their least favorite activity.  Now, I feel the need to explain that I’m not an everybody-gets-a-trophy mom, and I do my best to set up high standards.  But learning a new skill like this is really hard.  They need to know that you think they can do it.  I actually can only manage about five positive thing for each correction otherwise I feel like I'm talking ridiculously nonstop, but know it should be significantly more.  It should not be false flattery.  It needs to be genuine observations.  For the sake of time, I start looking for positive things to say before we even get set up and start.  Some examples:

- Wow, I just love the color you picked out.  I can see you’re going to have an eye for this!

-Good!

-That’s the way!

-You’re getting it!

-You concentrate so well.  Your brain must be well suited for this.

-I love that you keep trying.  What a great attitude.

-Wow.  You’re getting it faster than I did!

-I like how you have good posture.  That’s so important.

-I bet you have so many ideas for what you are going to make!

-I can’t believe you just did all of that!

• Make it funny.  Add humor wherever possible.  Information is moved to the long term memory portion of their brains if it’s funny, especially if you have a right-brained learner.  **More on this in the next Knitting Kids post about using poems and stories to teach knitting.  

• Let them start with 3-5 rows set up for them in the project.  Don’t make their first stitches be trying to get through those tight cast on stitches.  That’s immediately hard.  My knitting teacher didn’t teach me to cast on until the second lesson.  (The first lesson being about 3 hours long as I was an adult.)  Cast on and work the few rows for them, and let them start there.  
  

• Don’t start with a scarf if possible.  It’s too big, and kids do better with more instant gratification.  Actually I was taught to knit a 4” little garter stitch swatch to start with.  So that’s what I did with my kids.  It doesn’t make anything, except maybe a small doll blanket, or maybe a washcloth for an 18” doll, or a Lego tent, coaster, or frisbee.  (My kids turn everything into a frisbee.)  The first project should have short rows, so there’s lots of change, but not so short that it’s hard to get a rhythm.  Certainly no less than 10 stitches, and no more than 20.  Let them know this is their practice time, and you expect it to have loopy spots and holes.  Those aren’t bad during practice time.  You just learn what they look like and how to avoid them.  If you have a perfectionist child like I do, tell her you’ll be disappointed and discouraged if she do it perfect the first time, because it took you a long time to get it, and you don’t want to feel stupid.  It should make them giggle.  (Part 5 in this short Knitting Kids series will be a linkup to some great kids patterns after you get past the small garter stitch square.)

• Stop before they want to.  Don’t stop the lesson with failure or frustration.  Close it on a victory.  Leave them wanting more.  Make them beg for another lesson.  Make it a reward.  Make a firm date in ink for the next lesson, especially if they are upset about stopping.  

• When the lesson is done, put it away, as counterintuitive as it seems.  Perhaps an older child or teen could practice between lessons.  My kids just sit there knitting, and come to me every 2 minutes wanting me to fix something even though the lesson is over.  It drags on, and they end up frustrated, and I end up frustrated.  They want you to put the stitches that slipped off the needle back on right when you are cooking supper at the stove, and the baby is crabby, and you’re counting the minutes to bedtime.  Then all of a sudden, knitting is associated with mommy losing her temper.  Don’t do it.  Put it away in-between lessons until they can do about 10 rows or so at least without your help.  My Silje has finally gotten to the point of being able to knit in-between lessons, but my David is no where near ready for that.  

Next Friday: Knitting Kids Part III - Using Poems and Stories

Like No Big Deal

Like I said yesterday, Knut just had a birthday this last week.  Since he had a softball game the night of his birthday, we celebrated with a party the night before.  (He twisted or overextended his knee at the game, and has been icing it a lot since.  I joked that he's an old man now, which probably wasn't smart. I got a bad look.)

We kept his party small and just had his parents over for his traditional cheesecake.  The evening was so lovely that we moved the party outside so that the kids could ride bikes.  I was just getting a lawn chair out for Knut's mom when I heard yelling outside "HE'S DOING IT!  HE'S DOING IT!"

I had to see what all the fuss was about, and there was Elias, just riding his bike with no training wheels like it was not big deal.

 Then Grandpa got into some mischief when he stole David's bike and took off.

David eventually got his bike back, but Silje didn't realize she had to be careful too.  Grandpa is quick.

Solveig and Ingrid got in on the fun.  Well, Solveig put on her angry face.  We see that a lot these days.  She's 3.  She's still our precious Solveig Joy, but she's just…3.

Ingrid enjoyed the tricycle much more, though she couldn't pedal.  She spent a lot of time practicing getting on and off, though.

Elias was beaming the whole night.  He's the kid Eeyore-like kid as he tends to be a quiet, solemn fellow.  I wish I had videoed him showing off.  After getting the hang of it, he practiced turning.  After practicing turning he practiced starting without help.  Within an hour, he was skidding to a stop inches from my feet to show off and standing up while pedaling.  He wasn't giggling or yelling.

He just had this hard, set smile on his face and a look of mischief that could not be wiped off.  He was glowing with the praises of his audience.

He just rode…like it was no big deal.

Yarn Along

I nearly finished the Lady Pearl sweater, but I pulled back a bit to play with some of the colors and shaping a bit more.  I specifically use the word "play" because I sort of intended to play from the beginning, and I'm really enjoying myself.  I'm sure there's probably an easier way to do it, but this part is just easy stockinette stitch, and I wanted to try the shaping out 2 different ways from the beginning.  I tried the easier way first, and after I tried it on, I decided that the second option would lay nicer.  In theory that is, because now I'm trying out the second method.

I specifically picked Swans Island yarn for this type of "play."  This stuff is heavenly.  The last few months I've been working on a pattern collection, and it's easy to get in the "get it done" drive.  The more I stress about it, the more I desire to get into an artist mindset instead of a managerial mindset.  It's much less stressful, and I find more joy in it.

I've been fearful lately that I need to pull back on knitting, as it seems to have gotten in the way of me mothering more and more.  I get stuck on a design, and obsess about getting it done in the timeframe I allow myself.  Sometimes I wonder if I should be putting out designs at all.  But then I realize that the knitting isn't the problem, the priorities are the problem.  So I'm pulling back deadlines, and focusing on what needs to be focused on in the house.

That still includes turning on my artistic brain and getting something just right from time to time.  It's about claiming sane moments instead of adding stressful ones.  This time of year, though the opportunity to do that doesn't come as often.

For reading, I've been looking through this amazing cookbook (The New Midwestern Table) that is new to our home.  I love cookbooks, and stupidly decided to wander into the cooking section of a bookstore with Silje a few weeks ago.  I know how bad I get in that section.  I could not put this book down.  I brought it home with me that day not only because I wanted to keep reading it, but because I knew I would be reading it 100 more times.

This is such a beautiful book.  It's 400 pages, hardbound, with 200 recipes in it.  Oh, the recipes.  First they're based off of midwestern food.  So many times I pick up a cookbook from New York or Texas, and I simply cannot get the ingredients listed.  This cookbook is based off of foods I can get.  There's a whole chapter on lake fish for goodness sake.

Not only are all the ingredients ones I can get locally, but they're real food ingredients.  You see, she scoured church cookbooks and family cookbooks, and went to restaurants all over the midwest, all the way up into Canada, and published the best of the best, with her own twist to them.  So many of those cookbooks have recipes that include cream of something soups, etc.  No, this chef picks real food.  I'm not saying they're all healthy food, but they're made from real ingredients.  I really appreciate that.

I also love the pictures in this book.  I would sit down with it just for the pictures.  It's not just of food pictures, but she captures the whole midwest culture in these photos.  You see blue collar workers eating down home cooking, and old kitchens with grandma's old bowls.  Plus, so many of the recipes have a history, and that history is told right alongside the recipe.  She talks a lot about the immigrant culture, from the early Scandinavian and European settlers to the modern immigrants of Hmong and Somalis to the midwest, and how that all effects the foods and flavors that we eat.  I cannot put this book down.

Yesterday was Knut's birthday.  For his birthday breakfast we had the "Cardamom Caramel Rolls" from this cookbook.  They were the best caramel rolls I've ever had in my whole life.  There's about 199 more recipes in here that I'm dying to try.  OK, I'll be honest.  There are about 180 recipes in here that I can't wait to try.  There's a few that I know won't be my thing.  But still, 180 new recipes in my arsenal isn't a bad thing.  I'll take it.

Oh, and the recipes go into detail.  I like that.  She doesn't just tell you what to do, but why it needs to be done that way.  I'm a curious rebel.   When someone tells me to do something a certain way, but doesn't know why, I'll do it the opposite way just to see what happens.  So I love the explanations of why certain ingredients or methods are used.  It feels like you have an experienced relative in your kitchen with you, telling you exactly how great-grandma did it, and why she did it that way.  It's enamoring.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.

Brownie Points

So, do you all remember that last year for Christmas, I made my 3 girls these little girly Miss Maggie rabbits?  They were made out of wool felt and had little country style dresses and knit wool accessories.    I nearly died from cuteness overload.  Knut and I try to give the kids at least one handmade gift for Christmas from one of us.  Last year, this was the girls' handmade gift.  I was thinking of making them each some homemade socks this year but…

well, read on.

Let's just be honest.  No one asked for them.  They weren't on anyone's wish list as they weren't on any commercial and don't have a t.v. series to go with them.  I just thought they were adorable and I wanted to make them, and of course I wanted them to love them.  And they did.  Each little girl dearly loves her rabbit.  Silje's was named "Miss Maggie" and Solveig named hers "Posie" and Ingrid's is "Rosie."

Silje doesn't usually care for old fashioned styled things like that, but learning how to sew herself, she seemed to genuinely appreciate the effort.  She oohed and aaahed for my benefit like a pro.  While I like antiqued, muted colors, she likes anything with a rainbow of bright colors, animal prints, and of course…glitter.

Well, the designer, Alicia Paulson, has added 4 more softie kits to her store this spring.  There's now a fox, a deer, a mouse and a cat.  I'm just obsessed with them, and am already thinking I'll make 2 of them for Solveig and Ingrid for this next Christmas.  Deciding which 2 to make will be tricky.  Anyway, I called Silje over to the computer to get her opinion.  I made this stupid remark:

"So, I know you're almost 10 and all, and I know Miss Maggie is kind of old fashioned, and you're probably not into this stuff and want something different, but the designer just came out with some more animals.  I was thinking of making 2 more, at least for the little girls for this Christmas.  Want to help me choose?"

She looked at me, with a shocked, sad expression on her face.  "You're not going to make another one for me?  But I love my Miss Maggie!  I want another one!  There's a cat?  I claim the cat!"

I love that she's still my little girl.  And even though she doesn't like old fashioned things normally, she actually, genuinely adores her gift, and is eagerly anticipating her next.

Either that, or she totally knows how to score the brownie points with me.

And, since the boys say I never make anything for them, I asked them if they wanted a softie.  The fox is my favorite new softie, but all the girls say they want the girl ones.  So I asked the boys if they would like a fox so I have an excuse to make one.  Elias gave an enthusiastic "yes!" as he plays "house" with the girls as often as he crashes cars with David.  But David said he didn't want one.  Fair enough.  But now I'm wondering if it is okay for me to make one of these animals for everyone except David for Christmas, because I know he won't play with one.  Stuffed animals have never been his thing.  He says he would rather get a car shaped pillow for his bed.

I feel like I'd totally be leaving him out by not making one, but I'm not going to buy a kit, and spend hours making him a toy he doesn't want.  Well, I have a few months to figure out their Christmas gifts anyway.

I'm Blessed

We are brimming with life over here.  I wrote in my journal of gratefulness: "spiders: hard eucharisteo."  It's from the book One Thousand Gifts that talks about giving thanks for the things God gives us, even the things that we don't love.  It's part of learning to give thanks in all things.

Yes, with the summer months comes quite a bit of life, bugs included.  I see it wherever I look.

My strawberries are getting big.  I see the raspberries starting to form too.  Plus, some herbs for tea I've been working on the last few years are really starting to take off!  I think this year I get to figure out how to dry chamomile, peppermint, and echinacea as well as a few herbs for cooking.

I've been trying to "get rid of" a bunch of things in our big freezers in preparation for the big season of putting away.  I realized that last year I had started making rhubarb juice for the purpose of making rhubarb jelly.  Then my body went on strike after the car accident, so I put all the juice in the freezer to make into jelly later.  So I took out the 2 huge gallon sized bags full of rhubarb juice and made jelly all one morning last week.

It felt so redemptive, as silly as that sounds.

So that night, I was trying to think of what else I could make and put away before the berries kept me busy for a few weeks, making strawberry and raspberry jams, pies, tarts, etc.  I went to my canning wish list, and saw that I needed to put away some "Minnesota Summer" jam as well, and had all the ingredients on hand for that, so I made 16 pints of that the next day. (I did modify the recipe this year and used unflavored gelatin instead of strawberry jello.  I found it worked better when added the gelatin at the beginning of the recipe than the end otherwise the gelatin wasn't dissolving well.  I just decided that I didn't want artificial red dye in my homemade jams.  I plan on playing with this recipe further next summer.)  PLUS I had some bread and caramel rolls going on in the kitchen that day too.  I figure if I'm stuck in the kitchen watching fruit boil, I might as well have something to do as I watch it.

The kids helped me move the play kitchen into our kitchen so that the little girls could stay close as I canned and set bread out to rise all day Saturday.  There's nothing worse than having to stir something boiling for exactly 6 minutes, and your toddler runs off and you wonder what sorts of things she could get into for 6 minutes.  I like to keep them close.

It was the most perfect summer day to be in the kitchen.  It was rainy, but not blowing hard, so the kitchen windows were open.  The scent of lilacs right out the window and the fresh rain just wafted in and mixed with the scent of baking bread and sugary jam.  It was just heavenly.

I haven't had a day like that in over a year.  Sure, I went to bed hurting that night.  Happy, though.  I felt so alive.  I know I can't manage to work like that every day, but I was able to for one day, and that gave me such a high.  I felt like I had lived the day as an overcomer verses a victim and it was time to rest.  There's nothing like taking your pain and telling it to shove it.

In the most, Christian, blessed way, of course.

I'm so blessed.

Knitting Kids Part I - Why Knit?

This is the first post in the "Knitting Kids" blog series on teaching your kids to knit. 

I don’t know about you, but teaching kids to knit is hard.  The lady who taught me to knit said her mother taught her at age 3.  She just handed her some needles and told her to watch.  She picked it up in no time, just watching and mimicking.

My children are nothing like that. 

When I just hand my 3 year old some knitting needles it nearly always turns into a sword fight   
I sometimes wonder if children have always been so instant-minded and impatient.  My guess is that humans of all ages have been impatient since the beginning of time, so my theory that this generation of kids is more instant-minded might be arguable.  I want my kids to love knitting.  I want them to be creative, or at least have an appreciation for creativity.

All of my kids want to knit.  Every one of them.  

Knitting is not a male or female activity.  Neither is it an activity for females and sissy males.  Having taught both boys and girls to knit, I can attest to the fact that it doesn't come easier to any gender.  I have not had to push my boys into knitting.  They push me to teach them.  It's a fine motor skill.  I can think of many tough guys who have knit throughout history.  Actually, many historians believe knitting began with men.  Sailors knit.  Soldiers knit.  It's a survival skill.  Kids benefit by learning how to knit like they benefit learning how to garden or how to cook.

(Historically speaking, knitting guilds excluded women when they began)

(Boys knitting in WWII England, to help the war effort)

In addition to all of that, knitting is one of those special crafts that is passed down from person to person.  It's sitting down with a child, and teaching them something that will stick with them for the rest of their life.  Even if they don't remember how to knit when they are 20, they will always remember that you took the time to teach them.

It's cheap to teach, besides the time factor.  However, the time factor make it extraordinarily valuable to your kids.  Let's face it: they want our time.  They want our full attention.  We often read to our children, and that makes them lifelong learners.  Teaching a child to knit teaches them an appreciation for the arts and crafts.  Even if they don't knit their whole life long, they will always, for the rest of their lives think to themselves when they purchase a garment: "someone made that."  It is one step in the right direction against the flow of a disposable lifestyle, and appreciation for hard work.  You're not just passing on a skill, you are passing on values.

When they say to themselves "someone made that" they will begin to ask questions, like "who made that?" and "where was this made?"  These questions that mass markets want to sweep under the rug are ones that begin here.  They begin on a couch, with a child and some knitting needles.  Maybe they won't know how to knit to get a job.  But they will need to know how to value workers if they become a supervisor.  They will need to understand sourcing if they will be a buyer (or a consumer for that matter).  Knitting involves math, counting, geometry, design, fine motor skills…the list could go on.  That's why several countries teach it in their public schools.

In our family, we do "read aloud" books with our older kids after the little kids go to bed.  We have recently been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series.  My kids really love this time.  However, my oldest boy has the hardest time sitting still.  We don't make him sit for his schoolwork if he doesn't want to.  He actually thinks better in motion.  Many kids and adults do.  We've learned when sitting in church he likes to stretch a rubber band around his wrist.  He sits better when his hands are busy.

You could say I was the same way.  I remember when I was a child, I would sit on the bed with my sister, talking about something, and I would fidget with the quilt on the bed.  I would rub it with my nails and pick at the stitches, and gently rip them out, bit by bit.  I didn't mean to be destructive, but my hands needed something to do when we were just talking and I did it without thinking.  It drove her crazy.

As an adult, I have torn up hems of my skirts in the same manner when sitting through something still.  I do much better with knitting needles in my hands.  It allows me to concentrate while sitting.  So I know where my son is coming from.  Knitting is a great exercise for those with attention issues.  It allows us to "stay in motion" while sitting and enables concentration for what we are hearing.

Here's a look on the upcoming series on Knitting Kids that will post weekly on Fridays this summer:

Part I - Why Knit (that's this one)
Part II - Getting Ready (supplies and considerations)
Part III - Using Poems and Stories to teach
Part IV- Learning Units
Part V - Kids Patterns