My mother was a beautiful knitter and always seemed to have something on the needles. I expect she had to with a family of eight children- and in cold Scotland! I was keen to learn this art and I distinctly remember learning to knit from my mother at the age of four. I had blue needles and burgungy wool. It was a challenge as I was left handed but I cottoned on quickly and learned to knit right handed.
My Mother had a little poem to teach children knitting which went:
"In the little bunny hole (needle into the front of the stitch)
Round the big tree (wool round back needle)
Out through the bunny hole (pull the loop through with point of needle)
And off goes she" (slip the stitch onto right hand needle)
I have used this myself when teaching children.
In primary school there was a syllabus of knitting which started at age seven. An itinerant sewing and knitting teacher came round our group of country schools. I think it was once a month as it took all year to complete each project. We were not allowed to take the project home until the end of the year - I can see why as I would have had it finished in a couple of weeks!
At the age of seven (my third year at school) we had to knit a pot holder. It was made of four 6 inch squares folded in diagonally to the centre and stitched, then padded with old towelling. The teacher then crocheted round the outside and made a loop to hang it up. (We were never taught how to crochet at school.)
At age eight we made a scarf with two colours alternating, in garter stitch. Mine was emerald green and scarlet. (I hope my colour sense has improved! )
At age nine it was time to learn purl (but of course with my early start I was well versed in that!) and we had to make mittens.
Age ten it was into socks, learning to turn a heel and graft the toe.
So by the age of eleven I was knitting cardigans and jumpers not only for myself but also for my little brothers.
The Mof, aged 10, wearing a cardigan she knitted herself.
It was dark brown in colour and had an all over pattern
of alternating plain and purl stitches making a raised texture.
I will be forever grateful that my mother was a knitter and had the patience and willingness to teach me the skill as, like her, I always have something on the needles even if it is just using up oddments for squares for charity blankets.
Arriving in outback Australia in the 1960s as a new bride was a culture-shock of a grand scale for a Scottish country lass, but The Mof took it all in her stride. She lives in a country town in Western Australia where she is involved with a variety of community groups. She loves to read blogs, but doesn't have one of her own (yet) and she hasn’t owned a dishwasher for nine years.
14 comments:
There are so many good knitters out there. My grandmother and her mother were both good knitters, especially my grandmother, but the expertise skipped right over me. We had to knit one year for the Sewing class, and I remember how difficult I found it and how awful and embarrassing the result - a potholder! But as an adult I learned to crochet, produced lots of garments, and really enjoyed it.
My 8yo has expressed an interest in learning to knit and I think I'll be borrowing that rhyme to start him off. Some girlfriends taught me last year (my mother doesn't knit, see above) and I'm still slow and ungainly but I do enjoy it. I'm bravely essaying a chevron pattern this winter!
I love the Mof's story and I am completely in awe of her ability to knit a cardigan at such a young age!
I would love knitting (or crochet) to be taught in schools in the younger years. Not only is it an excellent skill to have but educationally it promotes co-ordination, timing and fine motor skills.
It think sometimes we are in such a hurry to teach reading and writing that we forget the foundation skills that promote co-ordination and fine motor skills that ultimately assist with the 'three Rs'.
I can knit and had to knit for school, also knitting a cardigan which took ages, but luckily had help along the way or I would be still doing it!! Must have been something Scottish schools thought you should know.Not a pleasure for me but then with Mof in the family who needs to knit!
I can't remember who taught me to knit, either my mother or my grandmother for sure. I was addicted to it as a teenager and would knit under the desk in class if I could get away with it. Haven't done much for years now but I did knit a sock (yes only one so far) this week. Unfortunately I don't know how to graft the toe so will have to wait until someone teaches me. I am too dim to understand the internet instructions.
The Mof taught me to knit...using that poem. I knit in fits and starts. And I get bored of it easily, so I tend to take on overly ambitious projects for the challenge of them, only to find the execution is beyond my abilties! Another regular Before Our Time commenter, Nanu, will recall one such project which I think she ended up helping me finish.
I'm lucky to be surrounded by elders that are very knit-erate!
I'm wondering whether Scottish boys learned to knit too, or was it just the girls who had these lessons?
Im glad I had boys, because hopefully they will never ask me to show them how to be as crafty as their granny and great aunt..if they do they will be very let down:) They will have to make do with my family spag bog recipe.
By the way that photo of the MOF as a lassie is scary, it looks like my husband in a wig and dress!
Alison, boys were not taught to knit at school. They were taken off to do "masculine" things depending on what the male teacher was expert at.
One of my brothers did learn to knit and knitted little things for his first child.
A friends husband learned while he was on a years expedition to Heard Island in the Southern Ocean. He was still knitting jumpers up until he was robbed of the skill by Alzheimers Disease at the age of 78
Many will know the male designer Kaffe Fassett who designed the most beautiful and colourful garments. I drool over his books but have not attempted to knit one!! I wonder if he was taught at his mothers knee or at school.
Yes, Alison, I well remember our slipover! I, too, learned to knit by pestering my mother who wasn't a knitter herself but knew how to. She was very encouraging with sewing as well as felt the disadvantage of not really being able to do either well enough. My own school experience was similar to Mof's. I love the little poem. I'd never heard it before and it certainly beats:- "in, over through and off". I taught in a Social Priority Primary School in Brighton, England for nearly 30 years. Every single child in my classes learned to knit – yes, even the boys. They loved it. It was something novel for them and didn't involve writing! They could relax and chat (albeit quietly) with no pressure. It was just a bit of fun. Years later, I bumped into an ex-pupil who had become a 6 foot (nearly 2 metres) workman coming out of a house near us he was working on and he said, "Do you remember that teddy you taught us to knit? Well, I've still got it." I omly ever failed with one child. His knitting ended up looking like woollen spaghetti but he and his Mum took it all with a great sense of humour.
It was my grandmother in Germany who taught me to knit when I was six. My Mom was not much of a knitter and I didn't really take it up again until I was in my mid forties. Now I knit like a fiend. I taught my son how to knit when he was 16. It was his first year at high school and he used to sit in the hallways between period. Said it was a great way to meet the girls...ciao
Just remembered! Son was here recently and reminded me of an occasion in Brighton when we were sitting waiting for him to do a guitar exam.. I, of course, not being one to sit and do nothing had taken along my knitting. Everyone else waiting was silent so I got it out and started it. Suddenly, out of the silence a voice said, "You're Scottish, aren't you? I can tell by the way you knit." The ice was broken! That Mun seemed to think we did it in a more economical way, fingers- wise.
A funny story about my knitting.
As I said in the blog I am never without knitting and when I was working I always had a garment in progress on top of my basket.
One morning I jumped off the bus and the ball of wool connected to the knitting bounced off the top of the basket and stayed on the bus! Fortunately it rolled out 50 metres up the street but I had 50 metres of dirty wet wool from the gutter!
Nanu, is it the way we secure our right hand needle under our right arm that makes us Scottish knitters?
I have a German friend who casts on in the most peculiar way and also knits in a funny way. I must watch her carefully this winter and see what she actually does.
You know I am no knitter but I love to crochet.
This post has inspired me. Every year the school knits squares for the charity blankets and I am going to see if I can get Margot to start doing it as she will then have a skill I never have had.
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