Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

OK moms, Now that Mother’s Day has come and gone and we (hopefully) felt the love, let’s all let out a big old howl of panic over the fact that summer vacation is but a few weeks away from starting. AHHHH!!

Now that we feel better, let’s get to work gathering some summer friendly, keep them busy crafts for the kids in our lives.

First stop…fingerknitting. Remember fingerknitting? And Spool Knitting? I don’t know about you but I spent HOURS making long chains of fingerknitting when I was a kid. And while your child will probably be inthralled by the simple fact that they can make a verrrry long chain of yarn, they might be a little more excited by making their own fall scarf.

Yes, fall is a ways away, but knitting projects can take time, and even if they don’t why not encourage them to make several so that they can give them out as back to school gifts for friends.

With all the fluffy, bulky and downright funky yarns out there, fingerknitting can produce some really cute (I’d wear one!) scarves that are a great project for kids who aren’t quite ready for needles. And because all you need is yarn, it’s also easy to carry along with you just about anywhere.

If you’ve forgotten the how’s of fingerknitting here’s what you need and how to get started. Skien of furry, funky or bulky yarn (I used a slightly bulky weight yarn for this tutorial so you could see the stitches, you want something bigger..and probably harrier)

Start by wrapping the tail of the yarn around your thumb a couple of times, just to keep it out of the way.

Weave the yarn in and out of your fingers then back again. Repeat until you have two rows of loops. Hook the yarn back over your thumb to it is out of the way as well.

Palm up, pull the bottom loop up over the finger it is on and over to the back of your hand. (hint- you should use your non-dominant hand for the yarn and your dominant hand to do the pulling- it’s easier plus you can do other things with your good hand when you need to with out the knitting getting in the way)

Pick up the new yarn and repeat. Once you have a few stitches down, you can unwind the tail from your thumb. Because the knitting falls down the back of the hand it keeps it out of the way should you want to stop and do something else. If you need to stop all together, run the tail of the yarn through each loop and tie it off loosly so that nothing unravels.

Keep an eye out here for more Schools Out Fun every Thursday!