Sometimes, the best ideas come from the youngest ones of us.

Students at Little Run Elementary enjoy learning how to knit so much that it has become the thing to do at their school.  Last year, they had so much fun that they came up with the idea to do a group project:  knit a quilt-type blanket to donate to a homeless shelter. To involve as many students as possible, they invited all students in grades 3-6 to participate, so that everyone could knit a square that would be sewn together to make the blanket.  The blanket was donated to the Katherine Hanley Shelter and delivered by the knitters themselves.

Knitting took off at Little Run after snowmageddon in 2010, when students missed two weeks of school because of two back-to-back snowstorms.  When they returned to school, they were talking with school counselor Maurie Negrin about how they filled the time.  Negrin said she had done a lot of knitting.  One third grade boy and his friend expressed an interest in learning how to knit, and knitting lessons were born.  

From that one student, word spread; Negrin posted a sign-up sheet that filled up quickly and taught students how to knit in groups of three.   The Little Run PTA generously provided funds for the materials, and kids signed up in droves to knit a square during their lunch times.   

In fact, so many kids signed up that Negrin found herself giving regular knitting lessons to interested students during lunchtime twice a week.

“The knitters came from every corner of our school – all ethnicities, all languages, all learning styles, boys and girls alike,” explains Negrin.  “Staff members jumped on the bandwagon, too, knitting alongside the students.”  Negrin had a cadre of individuals who had found a new calling and, while embracing their new skill, created visually stunning squares and blankets. “Every stitch is truly, as my grandmother used to say, a stitch of love,” she states.

Now that they’ve learned to knit, the students are off and running and many are establishing their own projects. Some have created their own knitting canisters, water bottle covers, and scarves.  Some knit on long trips, in the evening, and on weekends.  One student leaves a knitting project on each floor of her home.  And they’ve even taught new skills to Negrin, including how to make pom poms out of yarn.  

In addition to the benefits of eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, concrete use of math, problem-solving, logic skills, and the satisfaction that comes from creating something, there are social skills benefits as well, explains Negrin. 

“When students are knitting, the conversations that develop are easygoing and inclusive,” she says.   “As anyone who has participated in any type of quilting or knitting bee or other craft circle well knows, the conversations when the hands are busy with a shared skill tend to be informal and natural.  Topics move easily and students who might not otherwise have anything in common join in easy conversations.”  Additionally, students are amazed at how easy knitting is, how good it feels to pick up a new skill, and how relaxing it is.   As one student put it, “It’s not like video games where you just play and you don’t get anything out of it.” The sixth graders have even mentioned establishing a knitting club when they go to Frost Middle next year. 

Negrin admits that knitting is a “really good strategy to help me calm down,” and that she has seem similar effects on student knitters.  Currently, the fifth- and sixth-grade lunch bunches are creating squares and rectangles to decorate the poles in the school.  Will the knitting continue at Little Run?  “When you do something once at this school, it becomes a tradition,” she says.  
 

Check out photos and videos of the knitters below.