The Most Beautiful Wool in The World (and how Lovely learnt to finger knit)

So let's start at the beginning & this picture. Take a moment & LOOK at this wool & tell me if it's not just the loveliest thing ?! Alright, I think we can start the post now ;)

I've been reading a bit about handcrafts & how helpful they are in settling children's energy in the wonderful Montessori book ('Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful' which I love despite the challenging title. I'll write more about it soon. The link is below) and in speaking to other mothers and teachers at my boy's Waldorf school.

Here is one definite union of the Montessori and Waldorf philoshopies: Children learn through their hands.
 
"Compelling handwork that satisfied the soul while it exercised the hands... It is mysterious how handwork can serve so many ends - social connectedness, concentration, respect for others, fine motor development. Like music, handwork soothes the savage beast..." p.42 'Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful', Donna Bryant Goertz.

Lovely (5)'s teacher had mentioned that he was hesitating to get involved in the craft they were doing and I talked to him about it, suggesting that Mama help him. And that maybe we could do some finger knitting! Genius! This would tie in with the reading I was doing! Even more genius! But then... our conversation went a little bit like this: 

Rainbow Mama (that's me ;) "Would you like to learn to finger knit?"
Lovely: "No"
RM: "Oh... Really?"
Lovely: "I never ever ever want to finger knit in my whole life"

Hmmmm, so, it was at that point that I realised that I needed to bring in the big guns >> and this is how we came to buy *The Most Beautiful Wool in The World* :)

We are very blessed to have a gorgeous craft shop onsite at Hug's school. We'd been walking past this wool for months (me, admiring it longingly - "imagine having something to use that for!") so we knew where we were headed.

I couldn't remember how to get started so, as we gathered together bringing L's attention to it's lovliness, the shop owner patiently showed us all how to do a "slip knot" & we were off. There is a 10 minute drive between the boys schools and in that 10 minutes Lovely learnt to finger knit! #magic



By the evening he had completed his ball of wool ( I split our one ball of BWITW three ways) & had this gorgeous Rainbow chain. And he was very proud of himself :) LOVE. You can see it in it's finished glory (below) which is how I laid it out for him while he slept that night.

It hasn't *fixed* his hesitancy to get involved in craft but I can see that we are opening the door & showing him the possibilities.

What type of handcrafts do you and your family enjoy?