Knitting with little Cozy

   We were visiting family in Maryland during Christmas break. I was sitting on the couch knitting when my five year old grand daughter, Cozette, asked me to teach her how to knit. Cozette is quite the fun little elf. I wouldn't be surprised if her ears developed points sometime in the future. I wasn't particularly optimistic that I could teach a five year old to knit.  However, it is hard to tell Cozette "No" so I found a ball of acrylic yarn (a good use for acrylic yarn), picked out some larger needles, and sat down with Cozy to teach her to knit.

I just couldn't tell Cozette "No" when she asked to learn to knit.

    For the purpose of instructing my grand daughter I divided the process into four steps, 1. Insert needle knitwise, 2. Wrap the yarn around needle, 3. Pull the yarn through, and 4. Slip the stitch off  the original needle.  I figured we would have a little knitting lesson and she would then get bored and lose interest.  I was very surprised when that didn't happen.  Over the course of the last week of our visit I had about ten knitting lessons with Cozette.  I kept the lessons pretty short and added the operations gradually. I let her start out just wrapping the yarn around the needle for each stitch.  I gradually added the other operations such that she can now do all four steps.  She would sing out the different steps as she did them. She determined that our little practice piece would be a rug for the new dollhouse she got for Christmas.

   I'm sure I didn't get Cozy to the point where she could knit all on her own before we flew home to Snohomish.  First of all, she has just learned how to do the "knit" stitch. I didn't taught her how to "purl", "cast on", "cast off", etc. Also, no one in her immediate family knits so there isn't anyone who can give her refresher training or help expand her skills. However, if she lived near us, I am sure I could have her knitting all by herself within a month. I was surprised by her perseverance. We managed to finish the "rug" for her new doll house before we left.

Cozy learning to knit