Children & Crochet

[LadyyOftheOak]

My daughter Megan, just started crocheting yesterday :)h

 

She had been after me for a little while to start teaching her, and we did try once about a year ago but her little hands just simply weren't coordinated enough to deal with needle, thread and stitches. Well, yesterday she was home from school with a tummy thing and asked me again to show her. Within just a few minutes she had picked up the chain stitch and within a half hour or so she was doing a long chain with fairly good consistency.. I am so proud of her

 

It took her a little while to figure out the fingers. Finally I wrote "straight" on her pointing finger.. and "hold" on her middle finger so she would remember which one she should tension the yarn with and which one she could use with her thumb to hold the stitches.. but darned if she didn't do a pretty good job of it. Now we've got to start on the single crochet.. she tried it but got frustrated and it was time to put it down and go do something else for awhile.

 

She'll be 10 in February, proudly wears the last little scarf I made for her and is very creative. Does anyone else have children that age or younger that have taken up crocheting? Do you find they have a hard time with hand coordination? What tricks did you use to help them understand it?

 

I'm so excited for her.. this is something that has given me alot of comfort through the years, allowed me to be creative and express myself (I never follow a pattern *exactly*) and I think it's something she will enjoy for years. My little niece who is a year older is also fascinated with it and I'm going to hopefully work with her some more also. Just wondered if anyone else had taught children this young to work with the yarn and how ease/difficult was it for them to pick it up?

[natalie058]

I was eight when I learned. I too had problems with tension, that resolved themselves in a few weeks, once I got more comfortable.

 

Bigger yarn and hooks are easier to learn with, I think.

 

Check out this thread for more tips on teaching to crochet.

[LadyyOftheOak]

I'll try giving her a bigger needle to work with and might have to buy her some "chunky" yard to play with for awhile. It seems to me like the bigger needles are tougher, but might just be I've forgotten I don't like them now lol I'm picky.. get one or two needles I really like and don't wanna change over

[MarvieN]

Hi =)

 

I've taught my son (10 yo) to chain, sc and double so far. He hasn't done anything beyond the chain and foundation row yet, probably because he gets frustrated and bored easily. He really wanted to learn to make hats, but I told him before I taught him to crochet in the round he needed to make me a square, and he never did it, so he hasn't learned rounds yet. I think I'll try your writing on the fingers tip and see if that helps him. Part of the problem is that I am just not a teacher lol. I have a really hard time explaining things I guess.

 

Marvie

[LadyyOftheOak]

I know what you mean Sometimes you get so used to doing something that you know what you're doing but maybe have to think about the why and how lol

[emeraldmoon]

my 6 and 7 yr old have been learning now.. My 7 yr old last night just went right at it with doing the dc.. She helped make a hat.. All I did was hold the work for her and she did the rest.. I had her use the N hook.. She did one row by her self.. My 6 yr old did a few, she lost interest faster.. Here is a photo from last night of my 7 yr old..

 

[LadyyOftheOak]

That's a great picture I think I might try that with Megan also.. let her work the stitches and I'll hold the yarn and the tension

 

I bought two little plastic canvas hearts today for her and a little girlfriend to work with this afternoon and evening when it's nasty and raining Great how kids love creative things

[yarnyviolet]

Well I think the first yarn craft I did was corking....remember that?! I was about 6 or 7. Then I tried granny squares at 8. I crocheted really tight. I guess the unusual thing is that I learned this at an after school program by the woman who ran it (a grandmother with white hair). My mom doesn't know how to make anything but still has these horrible corked coasters I made over 20 years ago.

 

Rachel

[yarnyviolet]

Oh and I forgot to add that the biggest problem I had was my foundation chain. I usually had to make it with my fingers so it was loose enough and then use a hook on the first row. I now know that my crocheting was so tight as I only used the hook and didn't bring my loop down far enough along the shaft when making my stitches (does that make sense?).

 

Rachel

[LadyyOftheOak]

yup perfect sense That's a problem i'm having with Megan.. either they are far too loose or they are too tight to get the needle through.. with practice she'll get better at it though

[Donna]

Hi, LovesTenderTouch! I need to get in touch with you off board, but you have your ezInbox disabled and also no e-mail address. How can I contact you? Thanks!

[LadyyOftheOak]

Send me an email to donna@century-oak.com

Is it about my signature? LOL I try to remember to turn it off, but forget a good bit of the time (obviously :-s )

[Donna]

Hee, hee! Well, you guessed it. I didn't want to say anything on board, but since you brought it up... Yes, please try to keep your sig turned off most of the time. Once per thread is okay, but after that it gets pretty distracting. If you see you've forgotten, you can go back and edit it out by clicking edit and then unchecking the sig box. Thanks!

[LadyyOftheOak]

hehe gotcha

[Donna]