Kids Are Hilarious!

So I went back to work today after the winter break, and I introduced the Close Knit Hugs project to my students. I showed them the website and the example square that I knit last week.

At first, Emily and Megan were interested. Then when I told them that the number of homeless people in New Orleans has quadrupled since Hurricane Katrina (from 2,500 to 10,000), a few more students got interested... but still, all of them girls.

So I just kept talking. I don't know what got into me, but I figured that if I kept talking about the project long enough, a few more of them might get interested. I discussed that we should have a project chair or co-chairs, and had to explain to them that in this case, "chair" did not mean a type of furniture. So I worked a little vocabulary lesson in there. Go figure. I said that the co-chairs would start by writing a letter to the class's parents explaining the project and our pop can drive to raise money for knitting supplies. Haley and Morgan agreed to co-chair the project. Emily's mom, who owns a quilting store that also sells knitting supplies, volunteered to ask her mom for a donation. Awesome.

Then Brandon said, "I have a TON of pop cans to bring in!" That was the first male response to the project all hour.

"Great!" I said. "So, now who wants to learn to knit?"

Tyler and Matt raised their hands. The other boys snickered.

Tyler said, "You know, there are football players who knit. Like NFL football players! It helps their hand coordination."

"You're absolutely right, Tyler!" Of course I had no idea if this is true, but how would they know? At least 50% of good teaching involves acting.

This was the magic bullet. If an NFL player can knit and still maintain his manhood, I guess they thought that knitting would not somehow scar them for life, or turn them gay, or make them the butt of locker room jokes. All these boys started talking about knitting and raising their hands and volunteering to learn how to knit so they could knit a square for an afghan to send to the Gulf.

While they were talking to each other about the project, I ran next door to tell Linda (teacher next door who owns a sheep and spins her own yarn) that I had boys volunteering to knit.

When I got back to my room, the boys who had volunteered to knit were peer pressuring the boys who still weren't on board! In fact, one of them said, "Why don't you want to do it? Aren't you man enough?"

Tomorrow I teach Tyler and Matt to knit.

I'll post some pictures of the class's work as things progress...

Kid-Friendly Close Knit Hugs Square

I finally finished knitting the "model" square for my students' Close Knit Hugs afghan. It took me three tries. First I knitted a square using a worsted weight yarn. Too many stitches, too many rows, too much frustration for kids. Hobby Lobby was having a sale on Lion Brand Jiffy yarn, which is in the bulky/craft weight category. I bought some and knitted another square using the recommended needle size, size 10. Again, too many stitches, too many rows. I upped the needle size and tried again. Voilà!



Yarn
Lion Brand Jiffy in Paprika

Needles
Size 13, 9mm

Pattern
Cast on 20 stitches. Work in garter stitch until piece measures eight inches in length (about 37 rows). Bind off.

Scooter had fun helping with this one.