Free Online Kids Knitting Course from Rowan
I think a free online knitting course for kids is an AWESOME thing! The internet is teeming with people who want to teach you how to knit for free, but the content is directed towards adults, and anyone who has a kid in their life knows that kids do not learn the same way as adults. Kids also organize and process information in different ways, so the way you approach a pattern needs to be different too.
Rowan’s free mini course teaches kids how to do a few main skill (cast on, knit, and cast off) and some minor skills (simple seaming, sewing buttons & beads & etc, alternating colours, weaving in ends). I also love that the course includes four small projects kids would actually want to make: a puppet, a rosette, a snake and a cowl. The first three projects are very small, which is great because kids have much shorter attention spans than adults and a little bit of instant gratification goes a long way. The course also includes written instructions for four projects; the cowl from the last video lesson and three more bonus little projects (a spider, a kitty cat, and a little purse). The written instructions are clear and easy to follow.
The materials simple, it just requires some thick yarn (my favourite for beginners of all ages is Drops Andes), appropriately sized needles (I like the Knitter’s Pride Basix 9mm/US13 – 10″ for kids and adults), and a large eye tapestry needles (my favourite thing about the Knitter’s Pride tapestry needles is they come in a pack of 4, so when one gets lost, you still have three left!). You’ll also need to source a few buttons, a sewing needle and thread, some large-ish beads, and strings & stuff from around the house. If you have a spare brooch pin kicking around you win a prize!
The only down-side is that the videos are hosted on Rowan’s own website (learnrowan.com) and you have to log in and register for them. I don’t like putting walls between kids and learning, and having to rely on an adult to go to the website and log them in is a barrier. For my niece and nephew I’d keep the login and super password easy for them to remember, and I’d add the site to their tablet’s ‘Home Screen’ so they can go directly to it.
Materials
- Drops Andes: 1 ball to learn (the course uses about 3 different colours)
- 9mm/US13 – 10″ needles
- Tapestry Needle with Large Eye
- Free Online Mini-Course
Many thanks to Rowan for creating this content for kids! If you want to get your kid a book and take their knitting to the next level I suggest Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick; it’s the best I’ve ever seen, and it doesn’t shy away from building up to projects like socks and even a sweater!