Knitting

Since we mostly follow a Steiner based curriculum at our Unicorn school, both Gabriel and Willow have been learning to knit. To teach them to knit I also had to learn. To be honest that isn't entirely true, I actually learnt to knit when I was six, and then spent the next four years knitting my dad a scarf- it was a nightmare, and that combined with my mum taking forever to knit anything, totally put me off knitting.

Anyhow further down the track, and Willow is at the Glasgow Steiner School, and loads of the parents knit, I didn't really feel ready to face knitting, so instead I learnt to crochet. I crocheted a variety of hats for everyone in the family, making them up as I went along. After leaving Glasgow, homeschooling, returning to Adelaide, messing about with schools, we decided to homeschool again and I had to learn to knit to teach the kids, so now all three of us are busy knitting a variety of things.

Gabriel has only started to knit this year, and this has been challenging for me, as I knit left handed, and I had to teach him to knit right handed. Obviously essentially it is the same, but reversed. Apparently my Grandma taught me to knit left handed using a mirror, but since I've learnt most things by watching and reversing them, I figured I could do the same to help Gabriel. Now I'm able to knit both right and left handed, but I am much faster knitting left handed unsurprisingly. Willow ended up being taught by my Mum. She went for a sleepover one weekend with her Grandma, and came home being able to knit. So for the last couple of years I've mostly helped her with dropped stitches, and showed her how to purl, but on the whole it was much simpler, as she already knew the basics.

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June 2025

Since then  I have taught the younger two children to knit too.  Another one, Arden, is left handed like myself, but I chose to teach him right handed knitting for the convenience of following patterns, if he should choose to knit more.  So far he hasn't chosen to do that.  ATM Irving and I are knitting together- I am working on knitting Gabriel a Harry Potter "Weasley Jumper" and Irving is doing his first full knitting project; a black hat for himself.

This post is back when Arden learnt to knit, and when Gabriel made himself socks.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014.html

Willow regularly does craft work still, and probably did the most out of all the kids, so far, in her homeschooling journey.  This is when she was 15, and we were learning to sew, and she was also busy making herself a beret.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/05/pirated-away.html

This link is a must read if you are interested in knitting, or Steiner education but wonder about the relevance in a modern education.
http://pyrites.org/publications_files/Knitting%20begets%20thinking.pdf

If you use the search bar, there are more posts on our knitting over the years, for your inspiration.