When I started knitting, my family didn’t really know what to make of it. Skeins of yarn and circular needles started popping up in places all over the house. Double pointed needles and measuring tape took up residence in the couch cushions. My husband stayed out of it – after 17 years he knows when to ride it out. My kids, however, were more direct. They wanted to know about the yarn. They wanted to know about my project: Is it hard? Is it something for me? Is it pink??? And it was really only a matter of time before they wanted in on this knitting thing too.
I have a 9 year-old boy, a 5 year-old girl and a 4 year-old girl. All three of them started asking me if they could knit something too. So, I got some straight wooden needles and picked out a pattern for a beginner scarf. After trolling Ravelry for way too long I settled on the Easy kids’ pom pom scarf by Lainie Wicks.
It’s garter stitch all the way, and I figured the kids could knit a few rows on it and I could finish up the rest. The pattern was perfect, but there was no way that I could sell my girls on a gray scarf, even if it did have hot pink pom poms. They are very much in the “more is more” camp, so when I asked them what color we should use, they naturally said “ALL OF THEM!!”
I am ashamed to admit that it appears that I am a yarn snob. If I am going to spend two months knitting a sweater, I want it to be amazing at the end. But I sincerely doubted that the level of rainbow that my girls were looking for could be found in a special order from Denmark. And there was no way I was going to knit a kid accessory that required hand washing. So, we settled on Caron Skinny Cakes in the colorway rainbow. It’s 100% acrylic dk weight self-striping yarn that can be thrown in the washer and dryer without a second thought. They love it so. much.
The pattern was a breeze. It was so easy that I even tried teaching myself to knit continental. (It didn’t stick). The kids all knit some rows with varying success. There are some yarnovers and a little bit of a varying stitch count for reasons undetermined. Normally I would see holes in my knitting and rip it back to fix it. But they are so proud of their work that the three of them have been taking turns wearing it around the house, despite the fact that it is 85 degrees in Chicago today.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s acrylic, or if the colorway is bright enough to burn your retinas, or if there are a few unintentional short rows. Sometimes, good enough is perfect.
A Yarn Tail 