Knitting brainpower stitch by stitch
from Daily Breeze

Melanie Pickens picks up a coaster-sized circle of deep purple yarn, inspecting it to see if it will lie flat against a table. "This is too lumpy," 9-year-old Melanie told her teacher, Roberta Konefal-Shaer, of the crocheted disc that will someday become a hat. "What do you think I should do now? Do you think I should do a double stitch?" At the Waldorf School, boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade scrutinize their knitting, crocheting and sewing projects like students elsewhere might examine computer programs or graphing calculators. The private school in Bloomfield, Penn. -- one in a network of more than 900 schools practicing Waldorf Education worldwide -- is founded partly on the principle that forms of handwork such as knitting, crocheting and sewing are critical to a child's intellectual and emotional development. "They're training their fingertips to be more alive," said Konefal-Shaer, the school's handwork teacher. Every child in the school has two 45-minute handwork lessons per week. Kindergartners do projects such as sewing pouches for treasures found on nature walks. Fifth-graders spend much of the year knitting socks.

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