Two teachers at Bastion Elementary are keeping their students in stitches.
Catherine Auten and Martine Dollack are running a weekly club for some 60 would-be knitters in grades 2 and 3.
“For most of the students, this is the first time knitting,” says Auten, noting she and Dollack are teaching spool knitting as well, and that most of the children are making squares. “We spend a lot of time casting on and starting stitches again.”
The club runs for 30 minutes at lunch on Tuesdays.
Auten, the school’s vice-principal and Grade 4-5 teacher, says this is the third year the program has been offered, one that gives the children valuable skills and perhaps a lifelong passion for knitting.
The program is run twice a year. In the fall, several students joined the club and are now helping the younger students in the program that began in January.
“This year it’s just taken off and we have quite the crowd,” laughs Auten, noting other schools have also taken to stitching. “I think there’s been a real resurgence.”
Auten says Dollack began the program in her French immersion class and both teachers are delighting in the fact Grade 4-5 students are already eager to pass on what they have learned by helping the younger students develop their skills.
“It’s nice to have big-buddy, small-buddy time,” she says. “Bobbi Johnson (trustee) helps and so do grandmas and parents. It’s great to have the school community involved as well.”