Wednesday, July 5, 2017

A little break because of this...

(At the Museum of the Earth)

These two girls are my amazing nieces, who I only get to see once a year (usually). They live in Italy, now Milan, previously Rome, and before that Fermo  (a beautiful old Roman city on the Adriatic Coast). My sister, their mother, completed her studies in Scotland where she met a nice Italian man. After they got married they moved to Italy to start their family... Yes I know it sounds fantastic, and in some ways you are right, in other ways... not so much (remember I only get to see my nieces ~once a year). It hasn't always been that way, once upon a time travelling was affordable, and therefore frequent. Oh how times have changed. (Shameless plug, my sister and her husband rent their beautiful home in Fermo via AirBnB).

This year, I was lucky enough to host my nieces in Ithaca for a week. I have to admit, I was equally nervous as I was excited... TWO KIDS for ONE WEEK!?!?!?! I made an entire schedule, with back up activities just in case, and you can bet knitting was one of the many past-times I had planned.

Having never taught kids how to knit before, I did my research and came across an article by Tin Can Knits from 2015, Teaching Kids to Knit. While the article was primarily about her teaching her daughter Hunter how to knit, and not all too informative, she did share a great little ditty to sing while knitting:

In the front door
around the back
out the window
and off jumps Jack

Too which I added a little tug-tug at the end to take care of the lack of tension.

I was so excited to share my love of knitting with my nieces, and was surprised I never thought to do so before. In preparing I asked Katie at SewGreen Ithaca (a veteran knitting teacher) if she had any advice. She recommended a needle size between 7-10 (anything larger is clumsy, and anything smaller too ornery). So I picked up some US size 9 10" straight needles and some Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn (while I have been told not to start with cotton as it is unforgiving I figured a dish cloth is a great beginner project and unforgiving or forgiving who cares, it is a first project and mistakes will be made... we're not going for perfect we're going for fun). I cast-on and knit the first 3 rows in garter stitch, after they have to do is knit until a dish-cloth appears!

It worked!!!! (Well half worked, Greta had been taught to knit already by her Nona and had no interest but... Gracie loved it)!!! She brought it with her everywhere, and every morning she would wake up and ask me if we could knit together. 💙💚💜 While she needed help with dropped stitches, and would get upset every time it happened, she didn't give up. She even asked me how she can do this in Italy (I said 'Nona of course'). 



I cannot put into words how amazing it is to share something I love so much with someone I love so much only to have them be as excited about it as I am.

Man, Italy is far...

Here are a few more photos of our activities while they visited.
(With my sister Karyn at Robert Treman State Park)

(Raspberry picking at Indian Creek Farm)

(Camping in the Finger Lakes National Forest)

(A wander around Cornell University, Greta's dream school)


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