Today we planted herb gardens, tasted herbal tea, did a flower form-drawing, made some “story gardens” and enjoyed many stories. During free time the boys all decided to finger-knit so I decided to make up a story for them. They were doing that project that boys often do where they want to finger-knit the entire ball of yarn .
I had not planned ahead on this but part of the fun sometimes is seeing how the story will emerge. For example, the boy buried in the yarn in this story would not have eaten at all without my “audience” asking me, “didn’t he get hungry?”
Here is my finger-knitting story. It includes the names of the children in class today (reprint from old BLOG – transferring over to new website so you can enjoy all the “lost gems”). You can also see our finger-knitting video HERE.
The Finger-Knitting Hero
by Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
Copyright The BEarth Institute, Inc.
www.TheBEarthInstitute.com
Reprint this story only with my name and website included. Thank you. Or, you are welcome to link back to this BLOG.
There once was a boy named Nick who loved to finger-knit. It was obvious where he had come by this interest. His mother was an avid knitter herself. In fact, she was not JUST an avid knitter. She knitted sweaters for everyone in the village, she wove tablecloths from fiber and she knitted socks for all the girls and boys at school.
Even though they lived in a small cabin just outside of town, Nick’s mother had reserved an entire room to store her yarn in. The room was packed to the ceiling with every color and kind of yarn you could imagine. From floor to ceiling with only one pathway through the entire room! And if you took a ball of yarn from the middle of the pile of course you had to be careful or the entire pile would fall on your head.
For this reason, Nick’s mom would not let him enter the yarn room. She told him “You must never go into the yarn room. It is very dangerous!”
“Why,” asked Nick, “will the yarn eat me or hurt me?”
“No,” said Mama, “that is silly!”
“Will the yarn burn me?” asked Nick.
“No,” said Mama, “the yarn will not burn you.”
“Will the yarn scratch me?”
“No,” said Mama, “the yarn will not scratch you. It is just dangerous!”
So Nick did not go into the room. When he wanted to finger-knit he had to ask his mother for yarn. One day he asked his mother for some yellow yarn. “What kind of yellow?” she asked.
“Do you want yellow like the sun? Like a lemon or like a flower?”
“I want yellow like lemons!” said Nick.
So his mother went into the yarn room, carefully pulled a yellow from the pile and gave it to Nick. Nick was overjoyed and went to his favorite corner of the house to finger-knit. He sat nearly half the day and knitted. It was a very big ball of yarn. Finally he finished the entire ball!
Nick wanted to show his mom what he had done and he wanted more yarn so her went to find his mother. But she was nowhere to be found. She was not in the kitchen making him a snack. She was not in her bed resting, she was not even at her loom weaving.
“Mom?” Nick yelled.
But all he heard was “mmmmmph!”
So Nick slowly opened the door to the yarn room to get his own ball of yarn. It looked a bit messy but he didn’t think much of it. Almost immediately he saw the most lovely color of red yarn so he reached out to take it from the pile.
Almost immediately the pile fell on top of him and he was buried under all the yarn. He heard a “mmmmph!” again but he was too busy worrying about his predicament to think much of it.
He was trapped. Under hundreds of balls of yarn. So of course he started to finger-knit. First he knit a white ball, then a pink one, then the red one, then a multi-colored one, then one that looked like feathers and another than looked like little balls, then a very fluffy green one. He knit and knit and knit but soon he grew hungry. He said, “Oh, how I wish there were some food.”
Suddenly he heard “scrittchy scratchy squeek squeek!” and a little mouse appeared with a nice thick slice of bread, dropped it on Nick’s lap and ran away. Nick thought the bread looked lovely but he thought it would be even more lovely with some cheese. Almost immediately after thinking that he heard a “scritchy scratchy thunk thunk squeek” and the same mouse was back with a big hunk of cheese! Nick was very thankful for the dinner but he worried that he would be thirsty but the mouse was gone.
Nick started to eat his bread and pretty soon he heard a “scritchy scratchy rolly polly squeek squeek squeek” and the little mouse rolled a bottle of water right into his lap! Nick ate well and then went to sleep.
The next morning he woke up to the bright yellow and orange of the sun and was so happy! But it was not the sun it was just more yarn! Nick saw at once that he must get back to work. So he started finger-knitting again. Soon he was almost out of the pile and he heard a “hmmmmmp!” again. So he knitted and knitted and pretty soon he was out of the pile. Then he knitted and knitted some more towards the sound of the “hmmmph”.
Pretty soon his mother was unburied too. For the yarn had fallen on her and that is why Nick could not find her when he went looking. His mom gave him a big hug and said “It is such a good thing you learned how to finger-knit and that you are so fast Nick!”
After that, Nick started a new project. He started building some nice wooden shelves for his mother to keep her yarn on. And they were never buried in the yarn again. Although sometimes they did find little pieces of cheese here and there…and a nibble out of some of the skeins.
THE END
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