Knitting

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Chicago Students Learn More than Knitting in Fiber Clubs

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teen knitting clubs chicagoI really enjoyed this story from the Chicago Tribune about knitting and fiber arts clubs for high school students.

KnitLAB and BT Lives in the Stitch are projects in North Lawndale where students are paid to produce hand-crafted items and at the same time get a sense of community and pride in creating things that’s a contrast to the chaotic neighborhoods in which they live.

Some students say they thought knitting would be boring, and that it was hard at first, but they like being able to make things instead of buying them, and they like having their friends ask them to make things.

Teachers and art therapists say making is important for teens because it gives them autonomy in creating things, and the process of knitting is comforting, as we all know.

I think it’s awesome that these programs exist and wish more kids had the opportunity to learn knitting and other crafts in school.

Do any of your local schools have knitting programs? I’d love to hear about them.

[Photo by John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune.]

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Comments

  1. The article sounds interesting, unfortunately I can’t access it without a subscription to the Tribune. I’d like to learn more about it, are there any other sources?

  2. Our university has a knitting society which does volunteer knitting, such as blankets for the elderly and preemie knits… it’s a great way to get students both socialising with likeminded people, and also to support their community!

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!