I’ve been attempting to teach Kaitlynn how to knit this week. She’s eager to learn… so eager, in fact, that she wants to skip right through the basics and try to make hand warmers (love that girl’s ambition!)
Yesterday, as I was showing her how to cast-on and do the knit stitch, she was getting a little impatient at how tedious it was to learn. She flipped ahead to a more difficult pattern in the instruction book and asked if we could please make that.
My response to her is one I’ve learned the hard way in many things in life:
“You have to do the little things before you can do the big things.”
We’re all impatient. We want to run ahead and have the great success, land the amazing job, or knit that incredible pattern.
But it’s rare that you can jump ahead in life and do difficult things if you’ve not first started with simple things.
The little things are time-consuming and tedious. You often don’t see a lot of progress. You do a lot of the same stuff over and over again.
Keep at it, though, and all those little efforts will eventually add up if you don’t give up!
How wonderful that you are teaching your daughter to knit at a young age! My Grandmother taught me to crochet years ago when I was around 10. She passed away two years later, but I still love to crochet and I can relive pleasant memories of her as I make things. I am so glad she gave me this gift and your daughter will be too!
Ah… darnit. I hate when your posts relate to my day as well. No I’m not trying to do something hard, but the last 2 lines – the little things add up to something big. We are desprately trying to conquer our paper clutter and I said can you imagine if we just throw out 2-5 pieces of paper every day? 2 pieces of paper in a day is not even a dent, but over 6 months we could be 360 -900 pieces of paper (wow 900 pieces of junk). At least if they were filed appropriately, it would be easier to toss in a year or 7 years.
Thanks for the reminder that little things add up to big things… off to find 2 pieces.
Thanks, I needed this reminder! I am really trying to declutter my home and get rid of so much stuff…but I want it gone now! I don’t want to take the time to open up the kitchen cupboards and go through the bowls, bakeware, and other things that have made their way in there. I don’t want to go through the medicine cabinet. I don’t want to go through my kids’ clothes. I just want everything gone, right now! I’m just a bit overwhelemd by it all. I know that if I just do a little at a time, I will get it all done.
Wise words for your daughter! She is blessed to have a mommy who is teaching her the important things!
There’s a saying for this: “Stick to your knitting!”
Another one to go along with this — You have to do it slowly before you can do it quickly with accuracy. My daughters have watched a lot of Food Network, and as soon as they start trying to chop up a vegetable, they do it like the professional chefs – well, the speed of the professional chefs. Slowly first. Speed comes with time and practice. This applies to so many things besides cooking too.
Oh boy, I might need to save this and read it EVERY DAY!!!
Seriously, I’m with K; who has time for all that boring stuff??!! LOL!! That has been one of my hardest lessons to learn, and at 45, I still tend to rush ahead. I see it in some of my kids too.
My K’er wants to do the same Math work as his 2nd grade sister. And I say the same thing to him as you said to your girly. Now if only I could get it down!!
Thanks for the reminder. I tend to get too carried away with things many times. (I guess I’m still thinking like a kid sometimes even though I’m in my 30s!) But thank God, I’m learning to have a long-distance attitude instead of trying to get or do everything immediately. It’s something I’ve struggled with my whole life, though. 🙂 Oh well, at least we get slowly better over time!!!!
Trying to teach DS to knit, but he can’t get the casting on part. Which method are you using?
My dad used to say “By the inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard”.
The thing that helped us when I was teaching my daughter to knit was using big bamboo needles and thick yarn. This way the progress made was a lot quicker. Can’t wait to see her finished work!
What Yvonne said … that yarn in the photo is beautiful, but challenging stuff to work with because it’s so irregular. For a learner, big needles and chunky yarn make it easier to see the knit stitches, spot errors and fix them, and have a finished project fast. And bamboo needles are much warmer in the hands than metal needles, and stitches are less likely to slide off accidentally (although the needles are very smooth). For small kids, you can get 9-inch “scarf” needles in bamboo that are easy to manipulate.
That’s actually *my* knitting, not my daughter’s… yes, I’m still a beginner myself! 😉 She’s starting on basic yarn and needles.
Thanks so much for all the input!
This is one of the hardest things I’ve had to teach my children. I still don’t think I’m very good at it. lol
Very true.. start small and work your way up!
My first comment! 🙂 Thanks for posting these words I needed to hear alongside Kaitlynn! I am facing a few learning curves of my own, humbled by all that I need to learn to make a decent home! I came across a similarly encouraging note the other day related to piano practice . . .
” . . . At the same time, it’s good to remember that sometimes progress is measured in inches, not miles. Success for one person might constitute a complete disaster for the next, so ultimately the only person worth comparing yourself with is you. That way, you keep nudging your way forward, at whatever rate you are capable of, mindful of the fact that any distance travelled down the road of progress is better than none (even if it happens to be a tad less impressive than people half your age) . . .” –Pianist Mark Tanner at crosseyedpianist.com
. . . I especially like that last part about people half my age. I also like that I can always come to this blog and leave feeling stronger and more capable rather than overwhelmed!
I really like your quote, Anna!
lol. I tried knitting. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me. I’ve spent so many years doing cross-stitch, I’m used to nice tight stitching. My attempts at knitting always wound up with too-tight stitching that would bunch and warp. So I gave up.
But I agree with the post. The very first time I tried cross-stitch, I looked at my grandmother’s enormous tapestry size pieces. But, since I was an older teenager, I knew I’d never be able to do them unless I started small. I found some small 4″x4″ kits for 50 cents a piece at my local dollar store. I sat down and tried to do the first one. Totally ruined it. I didn’t start at the center like you’re supposed to and it came out totally off-center.
The second one, I paid much more attention to the instructions. My grandmother wasn’t able to help me (she was so blind by this point, she couldn’t have even if she wanted to) so I had to learn it on my own. After getting the rhythm of the stitch pattern, I got pretty good at it. Soon, I moved to slightly bigger pieces, like a 5″x8″ baby record for a friend of mine. My biggest piece so far is an 11″x14″ with gold filament thread, seed bead accents, and over 20 different colors total. It was a wedding record for my best friend. It didn’t come out 100% perfect (I made a minor counting error in one of the flowers that I corrected somewhat so the flower doesn’t look totally lopsided) but you’d never be able to tell unless you were looking for it. By far, one of the best pieces I’ve done.
It’s very true. You just have to start small.
lucky little girl to have such a smart Mommy!
Amen! What a crucial life lesson to be teaching our children! And Crystal, that yarn is beautiful—-may I ask what it is? Thanks!
Dear Crystal,
What a beautiful reminder of the reward of God truly blessing the faithful. I am inspired by your words of hope and encouragement to our daughter and to me.
Thank you.
Blessings,
Angie
a long time ago I read an article where the author said when she baked with her Grandmother they would always make the cake or cookies in the morning so that they could have time for the cake/cookies to cool before they would frost them and how she disliked that part… the waiting so when she got older and started baking on her own she tried to find ways around the waiting part but the truth was that only the waiting made everything come out just right. I loved that much like what you have written. It is so true that the small steps lead to the big and without them it is hard to get where we really want to be.
I know how to crochet and have always wanted to know how to knit. Did you learn from another person or from a book or video? Thanks for the reminder of starting with the small stuff.
Same here, my mom has tried to teach me, but I find it easier to crochet. I recently began working on a King size blanket I started 3 years ago and just left it in the bag and went on with life. Sadly, I only got about 1/8 of the blanket completed. So here I am 2013, determined to work on it everyday until Summer time comes around. Hoping to get about 1/2 way done, I hope! =)
I felt like your daughter a lot when I was painting homes. I kept wanting to get to the fun color part. It is so hard to take things step by step. Sweep dust off new walls, apply primer, wait till it dries, cut in color, and finally apply color and then repeat steps over and over room by room until it all has pretty color! Now looking back I am glad I took the time to do each step right, because the end job looks amazing. So even in my 30’s I am still struggling with this lesson.
Oh yeah…the prep work for painting is the totally un-fun part! I’ve painted a lot of furniture, and it’s tempting to skip the sanding, filling-holes, and priming steps. But the actual painting works a whole lot better when you don’t skip the prep.