Yesterday, before a late afternoon dinner at my sister’s house, I taught my two nieces, Elena and Sara, and my oldest child, Eli, how to knit. (My two younger children, Lydia and Grace, are already in the club.)

The three of them picked it up quickly: naturals. It must be in their blood. Eli and Sara even invented their own way of handling the yarn-over step.  I tried a couple of times to guide them in the conventional way, but, when I could see that their idiosyncratic styles were nevertheless effective, I let it be. To each his own way of knitting.

Demonstrating the purl stitch

Encouraging the youngest student

Guiding the musician's hands

As we were working together, I thought of something my sister Emily said in response to a post I wrote on November 14, about working with Georgie on his knitting. Em, who coaches synchronized swimming, wrote:  “I love to teach and seeing that lightbulb go off in someone’s head and walking away thinking – hey I just DID something there!”

That’s how I felt when I noticed first Elena, then Sara (only 6 years old!), and then Eli get into the groove: I just DID something.

Last night we got home and sat in the living room, industrious with our yarn and needles.  At one point, Eli broke the comfortable silence and exclaimed, “Wow. I rock at knitting.”

And the knitting goes on today.

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Thanks to Jimmy for the iPhone snaps.