Yesterday, I was a guest artist at St. Charles Borromeo School’s Art Day (my own kids went to school there 1^st through 8^th grade – so it is familiar territory!).  It was great to work with the students and provide them with a fiber arts experience.

A challenge too.  How do you give 1^st through 6^th graders a taste of knitting?  They came in grade-level groups for 40 minutes – and there were 5 artist stations to visit.  I had planned a display of knitted garments and some activities such as measuring gauge.  I had samples of different kinds of yarn and pictures of sheep, cotton fields, musk ox, etc.  But a project?

I had several sets of needles set up to demonstrate knitting – and could help the kids make knit stitches (one or two at a time!).  But I knew I needed a project.

When I was talking to my daughter Sasha a few weeks ago about the up-coming Art Day, I told her that I probably would not be most popular station since I knew there would be painting and clay projects at the other stations.  She said “Mom, then you have to have the coolest yarn monster project!” 

Yarn Monsters!  That was it!  Have the kids use all kinds of yarns to make tassel dolls – and call them Yarn Monsters.  Perfect!  They would get to choose yarns, work with yarns, deal with yarn color, weight & texture.  They would be following instructions and making creative choices.  A monster could be as simple as a tassel or more human-like or octopus-like. Simple tied limbs (or tentacles!) or braided ones.  It is a pretty straightforward process – so the school volunteers could help direct the kids, too. 

It worked beautifully and I would recommend this project to anyone who wants to provide a fiber arts experience for a group of kids or at a public event.  I used leftover yarn from my own stash (cheap! and a good way to get rid of those tiny balls) for the monster bodies and thin cone yarn someone had given me for the ties.  I made a poster with written directions and yarn monsters in each stage of construction (showing human and octopus options, braided and simple ties options). 

Yarn Monster Directions:

1)      choose 12 strands of yarn (pre-cut at 12”)

2)      use a tie-string (pre-cut at 6”) to tie them together at the middle

3)      fold the bundle in half and tie at the neck (this might be enough for some younger kids – we called it a ghost monster!)

4)      for an octopus-like monster, use 3 strands per tentacle and braid and/or simply tie

5)      for a human-like monster, divide out 6 strands for each arm (braid and/or tie)

6)      tie at the waist (you  can stop here and have a trailing sort of monster)

7)      divide  out 6 strands for each leg (braid and/or tie)

8)      the ties and yarn strands can be trimmed or not

The students enjoyed the Yarn Monster project and I think they all felt pretty successful and satisfied – whatever level of simplicity or complexity each chose.  One boy told me he was making a hamster!  I said “Okay!”