I recently had an opportunity to try and teach an 8 years old girl how to knit. I made a pair of wood kintting needles for her from wood beads and 1/4 inch dowel which I sharpened in a pencil sharpener and sanded smooth. The first thing she did was to paint the wood beads with acrylic paint. While the paint was drying, we tried to do some finger knitting, followed by some spool knitting. Finally we started knitting with needles.
I also made a bamboo darning needle for her. I used a bamboo chopstick for the darning needle. I drilled holes for the eye of the needle, then carved it out with an X-Acto knife. I sanded the darning needle smooth, then dipped the eye in fingernail polish.
The little bean bag was a demo piece that I made for her, It is a rectangle in garter stitch, folder over, and sewn together using a blanket stitch. I put beans inside before closing it up.
I used a spool knitter that I made from an old wood spool and some 1/8th inch dowels. I used worsted weight acrylic yarn to make the I-Cord. I made over 24 feet of I-Cord !
I decided to use the I-Cord as demo yarn, so I made a pair of wood needles from 7/16ths inch dowel and a couple of wood beads. I sanded the tips on a disc sander to shape them, then hand sanded the dowels smooth.
My young student liked the LARGE needles and yarn very much. She said it was much easier to see everything when I was showing her how to Cast On, Knit, and Bind Off. I also had a lot of fun trying to teach my young student. I hope she will want to continue learning how to knit.
