{"id":1555,"date":"2013-04-08T17:40:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2013-04-08T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:40:32","slug":"knitting-for-kids-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/2013\/04\/knitting-for-kids-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Knitting for kids 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Knitting<\/a>
\nKnitting for my daughter is my favorite knitting. Kids are smaller, can wear bright and fun colors and are generally cute in anything you put them in. Last week I talked about knitting for babies<\/a>. This week I thought about telling you what you need to consider when you knit for kids.\u00a0 There are some similar points but it is also a totally different world.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pick out the right yarn:<\/strong> Pick a yarn that is machine washable. You can of course use anything you want but kids are not exactly the world’s best carers of clothing.\u00a0 They take off their shoes and run around in their socks, they spill stuff and throw things in the laundry basket when you are not looking.\u00a0 I have shrunk a couple of because they got thrown in the laundry basket by mistake.\u00a0 Also make sure the yarn isn’t itchy.\u00a0 Have you ever tried making a child wear an itchy item of clothing? It is impossible.\u00a0 Touch the yarn and make sure it is nice and soft.\u00a0 Also cotton is great for summer items and keeps them nice and cool too.<\/li>\n
  2. Pick out the right pattern:<\/strong> Some patterns are really great, but just not suitable for YOUR child.\u00a0 Does it have a gazillion buttons and your child is still struggling with buttons, maybe a zipper is better.\u00a0 Or maybe it is a glove pattern with fingers but your child can’t put them on by himself, maybe mittens are better.\u00a0 Also if you are knitting for a smaller child, be mindful of safety, make sure there is nothing that they can use to hurt themselves or others with like a long cord or something.<\/li>\n
  3. Be bold with colors:<\/strong> You don’t necessarily need to use bold colors but you can be bold in your choices.\u00a0 You might not be able to wear neon pink, but your little girl might love it.\u00a0 Maybe your little boy loves purple and wants a cardigan and you can’t find purple cardigans, go for it.\u00a0 Why limit yourself to conventional color choices when the world can be your oyster.\u00a0 You can go as crazy as you like. Most kids are pretty fierce when it comes to accepting color.\u00a0 I also suggest not to just knit colors you like, but ask the child what they would like, and yes if they ask for a purple, lime green and yellow sweater, make one.<\/li>\n
  4. Measure the child properly:<\/strong> While clothing on kids are more forgiving on adults a good fit makes clothing look\u00a0 much better, it can make the garment look adorable instead of just homemade.\u00a0 Read the pattern carefully and make sure you take measurements where you have to.\u00a0 Measure every time you start a project, because kids have a tendency to grow quite quickly all of a sudden sometimes.\u00a0 If the child is in between sizes, I think it is always smarter to knit the larger size because while they will definitely grow, they almost never ever shrink. Knit a gauge swatch.\u00a0 Make sure it is big enough. Measure it, wash it, block it then measure it again.\u00a0 If you are knitting a scarf or a beanie gauge might not be super important but if you are knitting shorts or a t shirt, then gauge will matter. Measure twice, knit once is always a good motto.<\/li>\n
  5. Don’t be afraid to make modifications:<\/strong> Sometimes you have the perfect pattern, and sometimes you should look at it as a starting point.\u00a0 Does your child love to collect things? Maybe add a pocket or two.\u00a0 The pattern is a short sleeved one, but your little one gets cold, then make the sleeves longer.\u00a0 The pattern calls for buttons but the little one likes zippers, go for it.\u00a0 Most modifications are easy and straight forward, but if you need help you can always google it and find something on youtube to help you out.<\/li>\n
  6. You can smallsize that:<\/strong>\u00a0 If you are a capable\/brave knitter you might even consider small sizing an adult pattern.\u00a0 You could try using thinner yarn or just adjusting the stitch counts.<\/li>\n
  7. Include them in the process:<\/strong> You never know what they might ask for.\u00a0 Sometimes they might push you to learn a new technique or do something so awesome you might surprise yourself.<\/li>\n
  8. The options are endless:<\/strong> You can knit so many wonderful things for children like toys, socks, hats, bags, pillows, blankets and clothes.\u00a0 My daughter has been asking for a mermaid tail since forever.\u00a0 I will knit her one someday :-).\u00a0 She goes stash diving and asks for specific things and is always very grateful when she gets an FO.<\/li>\n
  9. Teach them about giving:<\/strong> It is always great to teach kids a new thing.\u00a0 You love your children and you would probably knit them stuff anyways, but it is always great to teach them that you spent a lot of time and energy making them something.\u00a0 Explain that you chose to use up your time to make them happy and ask them to make something for someone else.\u00a0 My daughter has learned the value of handmade gifts from watching me gift other people things I made.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Knitting for my daughter is my favorite knitting. Kids are smaller, can wear bright and fun colors and are generally cute in anything you put them in. Last week I talked about knitting for babies. This week I thought about telling you what you need to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[224,225,31],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knitting","tag-children","tag-kids","tag-knitting-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p10SDt-p5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chocolatemintsinajar.com\/craft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}