Gift Lab: Learning How to Knit with the Knitty Kitty

 

Product: Knitty Kitty Kit 

Research:

Five years ago, my talented and crafty friend Kate started hosting Sunday night knitting get-togethers in her dorm with movies, groups of friends, and snacks. I attended most weeks to be cool like Kate, and also for the snacks, but while everyone else flew past knitting and purling to more advanced patterns, I was never able to produce more than a few lopsided rectangles filled with dropped stitches, left unfinished and eventually abandoned. Every several months, I try to take up knitting again with similar results. I was excited that the Knitty Kitty Kit is described as a rainy-day activity for ages 5+, so it’s just my speed, and is more exciting to knit than a scarf. To prepare, I abandoned my current knitting project—another sad blue lopsided length of yarn—and broke open the Knitty Kitty Kit, which came with everything I needed to knit a cat stuffed animal.

Hypothesis:

I will improve my knitting skills and finally complete a knitting project.

Experiment:

Materials Needed:

1 Knitty Kitty Kit

1 Helper/Seamster

Lots of time to kill

First, I sorted through all the materials in the kit, and immediately began to question what kind of genius five-year-old was dexterous enough to use the small sewing needle and bright enough not to swallow some of the pieces. There were no directions for what to do if you drop a stitch or get knotted up. I crossed my fingers and worried this may be beyond my skill level.

Please send help!

I followed the printed instructions for casting on and once I started knitting, got everything completely tangled and ended up with a long loop sticking out the side of my knitted row. I tried once more with the same results before looking up a few alternate methods for casting on and had the most success with the two needle method.

Success!

I knitted about 90 rows to create one side of the cat’s body. I discovered that knitting is a great activity for Type A people like me, because it allowed me to feel like I was doing something productive while I got caught up on a few shows.

I then abandoned the project for two weeks because I was afraid of casting off. When I returned to it, I found that the instructions for doing so were easy to follow, and I was able to successfully finish the first piece. I then repeated the process for a second body section and two smaller pieces for the ears.

The two small pieces are supposed to be rectangles, too, but I think they look more like ears this way.

All the confidence I had gained from knitting not one but four complete sections was dashed upon reading the instructions for sewing it together. The sections about how to choose a needle and thread for this project were confusing, because everything was already provided, and it wasn’t clear that the string in the box should be separated into multiple threads in order to have enough to complete the project. After several failed attempts to thread the needle and having the thread fall from the eye with the first stitch, I enlisted expert help.

The next steps were the easiest for me, because I just watched as my more talented helper turned the length of knitting into a cat. From what he tells me, sewing the body up and using a running stitch to draw the top and bottom together were easy, but sewing the whiskers on through the nose proved more difficult. But with a little help from my friends, we completed my first knitting project!

Conclusion:

This was a fun project, but I don’t know if it’s a single-day activity for children. The instructions were confusing, but people with experience would be able to figure them out. Knitters who are just getting started but have some experience will have more fun with the project, especially if they have sewing experience. I was still able to stay in my comfort zone of knitting lopsided rectangles, but this kit allowed me to turn them into a really cute finished product.