The Next Generation...

 The women in our Paneras group love teaching new knitters, crocheters or

needleworkers. We frequently teach women how to get started, but nothing

is more fun or satisfying than teaching young people what we already know.

 Recently, two young ladies asked if we would be willing to teach them

how to knit. Adele and Ellen told their moms what they would need to

get started and the girls returned the following week anxious to learn.

The girls are actually cousins, and one of their moms sat close by to watch.

Adele took on the younger of the two, and Ellen asked the older girl to 

sit down next to her. By the end of the evening, Ellen's student was 

knitting away, while the younger one was skipping around the restaurant 

saying she'd try again later. We giggled and recognized that a few 

years in age can make quite a difference in a child's attention span.

Perhaps next year she'll be a little more enthused and coordinated to learn.

Holding those long knitting needles can be a little awkward, too.

Meanwhile, the rest of our group had settled in with their own projects.

Blankets, sweaters, washcloths and scarves were being created.

I smiled as I watched the little girls. I remember learning to knit as

a young girl. My stitches were too tight, and my hands were sticky

from being so nervous, which only made the stitches harder to move

on the needles. I was great at making squares and rectangles, so all

my Barbie™ dolls wore rectangles of fabric that I sewed together and

then cut holes in for armholes. I had no idea that the knitting would

run and my little knitted pieces would be ruined. I was creating 

something with my own hands...and I was proud. I'd made it myself.

It's the same for the young girl working on her first scarf at Paneras. 

She'll remember this years from now. We're helping make memories. 

It's really a wonderful thing to pass a creative skill on to the next 

generation. Participating in that is an honor, indeed.