knit chickens

The art club learned to knit this year and for many of the students these chickens were their first ever completed knitting project. The time commitment, sincerity, and cuteness of the knit chickens made them one of the most poular items in the art sale. I actually asked the kids when they were finished if they really wanted to sell them and they all said yes (so their parents had to buy them back at the sale if they wanted to keep their kids first knitting projects -- 8 dollars a piece).

At the beginning of December we started learning to knit and I told the kids to get enough yarn for a scarf, but I soon realized that a scarf takes too much time. The chickens are a 16 by 16 square folded in half and stuffed and tucked to create the neck and back (with a felt comb and some embroidered eyes). Keeping to a strict square helped the students to concentrate on counting each row for dropped or added stitches, which seemed to be the biggest problem.

Attention span for beginning knitting projects with kids is really important, and being able to finish and individualize a knit chicken in a few sessions helped the students stick with me and overcome the frustrations of hand coordination and tension problems. I know that some of the art students went on to complete knit scarves over the winter season outside of art club. I hope that some of them will keep at it and develop a lifetime hobby. Next year I plan to revisit knitting and maybe we will learn to crochet as well.