Club of Undetermined Name

No matter, because I know CCC well and I never expected things to unfold smoothly.  R. from the after school program came to greet me and I noticed that she was limping heavily. "Did you hurt your leg R.?" , I inquired. She responded, "I was riding the T the other day which I hardly ever do.  A man told me to get out of his seat. I'm a joker, you know.  I told him that Rosa Parks already proved her point and besides I was at the back of the car. He stabbed me in the leg."  Welcome to the neighborhood where stories like that are far from unusual.  I offered to do a dressing change for her if she wanted but R said that her staples were coming out tomorrow so there was no need.

I began my group with two girls, one aged seven and one ten.   The seven year old was chatty, effervescent and full of information. The ten year old was already surly and tired from a long day at school.  We talked about what constitutes a hobby and moved on from there. The seven year old had us move quickly through how to treat different fabrics, what kinds of textures in fabrics she noticed, and how it was important to treat things in the right way. She was able to grasp the idea of knit and purl very quickly.  The ten year old read the labels and commented on the yardage of the yarn and its fiber content. "This yarn comes from Peru!"  I showed these two girls how to make a slip knot and how easy that was to unravel.  It made them laugh.

A little guy walked in to say hello and told us that his brother knows how to knit. I thanked him for sharing that.  Then five more girls joined us after having just disembarked from a school bus.  They were prepared to disrupt our little class but were soon engaged.  I showed them the most recent projects I had knitted which were a scarf and a dishcloth and that became a source or wonderment.  Children are so tactile and pretty quickly they were rubbing the scarf across their faces and flipping the dishcloth over and over.  It was just what I wanted them to do.

A lot of these inner city kids are very social but have a more limited exposure to vocabulary words.  I shared the terminology of knitting with them and also introduced concepts such as horizontal and vertical.  They each got to choose a ball of yarn and were pretty generous about swapping until everyone had the color that they wanted. Then they got to initial their personal knitting supplies which I had ordered and they asked how they would identify them.  We even got to discuss how to put initials on things and the best way to store our supplies.

When we finished our first class, the girls seemed very psyched to move on in learning needlecraft.  It's going to be a real challenge to teach because of spatial skills and developmental levels.  Still, I have such an affinity for spending time with children and I am willing to put in the work.  Many of the staff asked to join our group at some point, and of course, they are welcome.

For those of you who have come with me to CC, you know it is situated in a place that has its own social rules.  I understand them to some extent and pass no judgments. I think teaching some kids to knit will be an adventure.  When I went in to say goodbye to R. and have her store our supplies, she gave me a resounding high-five.  I think she expected some chaos, and didn't know me from when I taught at CCC before. 

Downstairs in the preschool is a  quilt that I made for an unruly 4 year old class long ago. Everyone put their name on a square and I sewed them together along with some applique. I thought the quilt had long disappeared but it was rediscovered and is hanging right in the middle of the pre-school hallway, with its felt lettered applique saying "friendship."  No one knew that I had made that but I let on to my new group that I was the creator of that silly quilt.  It bought a bit of credibility to my artistic efforts.

Next week we will think of a name to prove that we are going to move forward as a group.