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Pragmatic Tips to Teach Crochet, Ages 3-6

Knitting is not the only craft that can be taught to young children.  I’ve taught young children to crochet , and I’d thought, in another part of the Tips to Teach series, I’d tell you a bit about it.  Some of these will be repeats, because I think it bears repeating, but some will be a bit different too.

Start with Double Crochet.  Double crochet has more of a rhythm, I think, than single crochet, so I think it’s easier to teach.  The way I talk about double crochet is, “Yarn over, go through the stitch, yarn over, pull through (3 loops on needle left), yarn over, pull through two (loops), yarn over, pull through two (loops).”  If you notice, between each step is a yarn over, so it’s easier for children to know which step is next.

Have them start working into a swatch you’ve done.  One of the most common problems I see when students start is that they make really tight stitches, and it’s hard to insert the hook into the stitches when you go to make the next row.  To forestall this, I make a small sample for my students to work into.  This way they can learn to identify stitches and also see how loose the stitches should be.  And if they are too tight at first?  I flip the swatch over and have them try again on the other side.

Show them both the pencil hold and the knife hold.  This is a big one.  I’ve found that teaching both handholds can often really turn the lightbulb on for a student.  Sometimes, one just feels better than the other, and sometimes the switch to something that feels more natural for the student can be all that you need to have them go from struggling to confident.

On the same vein, mention that there are two type of hooks.  A lot of people I’ve met who have been crocheting for a long time don’t realize that there are different styles of hooks.  While you don’t have to talk a long time about it, make sure your kid knows that there are two different ones, and let them try each.  A lot of people have a clear preference for one over the other.

Show kids what they are working toward.  A lot of kids can be really motivated by seeing what they are working toward.  Show them some of the patterns you can do with just a chain and a double crochet (like the v-stitch) so they know that they don’t have to just do one stitch in one stitch designs.  If the kid you are teaching grasps the concepts you are working on quickly, it can be worth teaching them things like the V-stitch (with counting and skipping spaces) before you teach them a new stitch like single crochet.

Also make note: A lot of the skills that are true for children knitting and similar skills for crochet.  While I talk about these more in this article, let me reiterate:
Make sure they’re interested.  
Keep it Short. 
Have them sit on your lap and hold the sticks with you.  
Show them several times, then have them “teach” you.  
Take turns.  
Focus on the skill, not on the result. 
Give them a small manageable project that finishes quickly. I have several listed HERE

7 Pragmatic Tips to Teach Children How to Knit Ages 3-6

See?  Smiling.  They’re having fun.

People will sometimes come into The Yarn Spot or A Tangled Skein, or when people find out I’m a nanny and a craft instructor, and they will ask me a common question: “How young can you teach children to knit?”  This will be closely followed by, “How do you teach children to knit?”  This series of posts will address some of those questions.  (This also happens with crochet, but I say knit because people assume very often, even when I’m crocheting that it’s knitting.  Depending on my mood and their level of interest, I’ll sometimes correct them.)

Sweetness has been knitting since a few months after I met her, so around 3 1/2.  Light is 2 1/2, and is already showing interest.  She has her own needles, and will ape what Sweetness and I are doing, but she doesn’t quite have the attention span.

As follows, a sweet list of 7 tips for teaching very young children:

Make sure they’re interested.  If you are teaching them to knit at a young age, the desire has to come from them.  At three or four, they only way they will be interested in learning is if THEY are the ones who came up with the idea.  Don’t try to force learning on them.

Keep it Short.  Lessons should only go for at most 10 minutes.  Keep it short.  Stop while they still want more.  The longer you go at it, the more likely they’ll get frustrated and loose interest.  I know it’s tempting to keep going when it’s going well, but you want to end each lesson with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, not frustration.

Have them sit on your lap and hold the sticks with you.  Sweetness was (and still is, but it’s a close thing) small enough to fit on my lap when we started.  I would hold the needles with her and do the stitches.  Later, she took over the right hand, and then the left hand.  I still would do the wrapping of the yarn, while she figured out what was going on with the sticks.

Show them several times, then have them “teach” you.  This does two things.  One, you can listen and hear how they are thinking about the stitches and the movements they are doing, and then use the language they are using.  If they think of it more like a wrap instead of a yarn over, call it what they call it.  The proper language can come later.

Take turns.  Have them do a row, then you do a row.  This does two things.  First, you can correct any mistakes they made on the last row, like wrapping the yarn the wrong way and creating twisted stitches, picking up dropped stitches, or evening out their tension.  Second, their square grows faster this way.  Don’t be afraid to do a few rows after they’re done, to keep it growing.

Give them short needles.  Long straights, or even circulars, can be hard for small kids to manage.  I normally use a pair of double pointed needles, 8″ long, and put rubber bands at the end.  This way, if we loose one, I got 3 to replace it (packs of DPNs normally come in 5) and the shorter needle is easier to manage.

Focus on the skill, not on the result.  At 3-6 years old, children are still developing fine motor skills.  They’re first knitting may not even be usable.  Don’t focus on making anything in particular other than a square.  Just focus on getting the skill down.

Please, don’t set their sights on a scarf.  So many people come into the store with kids, saying that they want to knit a scarf and it’s their first project.  I always try to steer them to some different options – some of which I’ve listed HERE.  After the first 6-10″ a garter stitch scarf gets really boring.  Children are young.  The amount of time it takes for an adult, never-mind a child, to knit a scarf is LONG.  Give them a more attainable short term goal.

What type of advice would you give someone who was teaching a young child to knit?