Sweet Home Junior High students spent 14 weeks last fall learning to knit and creating various wooly projects in the school’s Knitting Club.
Their effort started in September with bookmarks.
“We had some pretty interesting shapes,” said club advisor Collleen Henry, a teacher at the school.
“One bookmark looked remarkably like the Disney fish Nemo, or, if you tipped it to one side, the state of Texas.”
She noted that knitting “llustrates life lessons about disappointment and perseverance; when things don’t turn out the way you want them to – unravel and start over.”
Students also learned how to knit a hat using a round knitting loom, which became an instant fashion accessory around school, Henry said. Students were exposed to the different textures and styles of yarn. They were even introduced to its natural forms when art teacher Jeri Hurff brought in bags of fleece and carded wool from her own sheep.
Students joined efforts in a club project, knitting a rainbow of seven by nine inch patches that were stitched together to create an afghan for Warm Up America.
Eighth-grade speed knitters Krystal Juza and Olivia Johnson knitted over half of the 49 blocks needed to complete the club’s afghan.
Henry said the club “had a lot of support from enthusiastic parents, the P.T.C., and staff members at the junior high – especially Almut Hoy and Vanesa Gallup.
“They gave so much of their time helping students with their blocks and showing them different knitting technique,” she said. “Teachers would stop by after school and knit with the students. It was fantastic!”
The afghan was donated to Twin Oaks Care Center in Sweet Home.