Help Your Kids Learn to Knit with Rowan

Lots of people are pulling together to help us keep our kids educated and entertained these days, and the good folks at Rowan Yarns have stepped up with a five-part class to help kids learn to knit.

In these free classes they will learn how to cast on and bind off as well as the knit stitch and some fun projects (it looks like a snake, a striped cowl and a hand puppet). They’ll use super bulky yarn and size US 15 knitting needles for the projects.

Children must be signed up by a parent using their email address. This looks like a lot of fun for littles who don’t know how to knit yet. They recommend it for kids 7 and up, but you know your child and their possible interest in learning so feel free to go younger if you want. Then you’ll have a tiny knitting companion, which is really the best thing ever.

[Photo: Rowan Yarns.]

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Check out these books dedicated to Knitted Cowl Patterns still looking for more cowl patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

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