Yarn-O-Rama

My friend Anne sent me this book recently.  I love it.  It's all about yarn and knitting and magical boxes and being kind to people. The minute I read it, I knew I wanted to share it with the Daisies.  So, I began a search for yarn-themed activities, and ended up planning a really fun meeting for this week.

First, I asked around town and found a person who hand-spins wool into yarn and was willing to come demonstrate for the girls.  She seemed a little nervous, but she was great!  She brought them each a little ball of roving, straight from a local sheep.  The kids couldn't stop touching it and smelling it (?!) and playing with it.

Then, she showed them her spindle and spun a little yarn while they watched.  The girls were a good audience and asked a lot of good questions.  This was by far our most successful "guest speaker."

We talked about things you can do with yarn, and I showed them some knitting needles and a couple of my projects.  Then, I showed them a couple of things that kids can do with yarn, like these yarn dolls and "embroidered" cards:

Finally, it was time to let them make something on their own.  I gave them each a little cardboard wheel and some yarn, and showed them how to make these fancy braided  friendship bracelets:

I wasn't sure how this would go.  I was worried it would be too hard for them, or that by the end of the meeting they would be bored with all the yarn talk.  But they LOVED it!  They were all really concentrating and working hard, and they did a great job with almost no help from the grown-ups.  It was the quietest I have seen them all year.  They kept coming over to show me their progress, all proud.  It was cool.

I think the moms in the group enjoyed the meeting too.  By the end, a couple of them expressed an interest in learning to knit.  Yay!

So, thank you to my friend Anne, for sending me such an awesome book and inspiring a really fun Daisy meeting.  I think I'll go work on my sweater...