My Son, the Spider
Printer-friendly versionOne of the wonderful things about having kids is seeing a bit of yourself reflected in another person. My son, for instance, is as passionate about his yarn stash as I am over mine. Watching him browsing the “three-dollar-a-bag” counter at my local discount yarn shop is a fun way to spend an hour.
Of course, the other fun thing about kids is how they then take things in a completely different direction.
I’ve taught Kai how to weave on a table loom. I’ve shown him knitting with the following rhyme:
| In the door, | (insert the working needle) |
| Grab a scarf, | (wrap the yarn) |
| Run back out, | (pull the loop through) |
| Before the cat barfs! *blatt* | (pop the knitted stitch off the resting needle) |
(I’m not sure where I picked that up, possibly a Cat Bordhi book? I don’t recall, but it really holds a kid’s attention. I’ve had a whole room of kindergarteners in hysterics with that one.)
I’ve taught him finger knitting and crocheting.
But Kai has his own form of personal expression. What does he do with his yarn: acrylic, chenille, and metallics?
Builds giant room-sized webs. He calls them his “traps.”
They’re an interesting combination of geometry and art installation. You leave him alone in a room for an hour or so with yarn and things happen. Left in place, he’ll start tying in found objects (that’s probably the influence of the dreamcatchers his grandmother makes for him) and each one has a story.
This one is also part mechanical device. Here he's showing me how you pull a thread on one side of the room, and a bell rings in the other.
It’s not what I would do with yarn, but it’s an interesting artistic expression, and I feel lucky to have such a creative and sweet son.
Of course, he’s pretty lucky to have two parents who—upon discovering that the living room had been converted into a giant labyrinth say—“Wow. That’s so cool!” and admire the web and take numerous pictures instead of throwing a fit about the mess.
We did eventually have a talk about art verses the need to “walk across the room safely” and negotiated a three-day exhibition in the living room, after which the project was recycled back into yarn.
My weaving? Today I’m weaving samples for a rigid-heddle class I’m teaching on Sunday. Examples of things you can weave using two heddles: double-width, 3/1 twills, fine cloth, etc. I love the fact that my work now means that I have to spend a certain amount of time weaving. I get to be diligent and have fun; how cool is that?
P.S. For those who asked: the sheep came through the cold just fine. The sweaters, not so much. But they gave their little polarfleece lives for a good cause.
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Comments
FANTASTIC!
How fantastic! What a brilliantly creative son you have!!! You need to build him a special room so that he can add to and subtract from his creations endlessly!
son weaving
I am thrilled to see another boy weaving My son too has had many a creative weaving knitting moment and we have always appreciated the results. He has grown up into an articulate, creative man that is a joy to be with. Congratulations.
PS I have shared the ewe moment with a number of my livestock buddies and we all appreciate the story as having to live through similar moments.Not only does the sheep/goat question your intentions but we question our sanity.
son of a weaver
oohhhoohhh.
the kids at our meeting house did that too, fill the room with yarn traps.
what a great way for a child to make-up a storey.
our literature is filled with string and yarn, I'm thinking Tom Sawyer to the Three Fates
I love you three fold web site!!!!
Art Room
Dude. You may have just gotten me in trouble. I was reading the comments on this post to Kai, and he pointed at me when I read this one and said, "YEah. Now you have to." ;>
i hope someday
i hope someday my son will do such amazing things! he is only 16 months so i think i have a bit of a wait. he has started drawing though and he does enjoy yarn!
- bug
http://nubivagant.wordpress.com/
Scarf / Barf / ??
I was just wondering how many words that are that rhyme with "scarf". RhymeZone lists only surnames (they don't seem to list 'barf"). Great rhyme. ;-)
Great pictures of the yarn-art too!
me too!
I absolutely did that when I was a kid!
Your Son the Spider Web Creator
I loved the blog as much as the photos. I am with my grandsons (7 & 9) in Allentown, PA. My gifts are always art & craft supplies rather than toys. This visit we wove pot holders on metal frames. The boys decided to combine efforts by sewing the pot holders together to make Mom a purse. It is wonderful seeing the children working with their hands and using their creative minds.
Harriett E. Ringold
double heddle weavings photos please :)
Hi Syne,
I'm sure I'm not the only one who couldn't make your class that would love to see some photos of that demo weaving using 2 heddles... I'm blown away you can do that 2 layer double weaving on an RH (or even on any loom!) . Hope you teach it again soon, somewhere in the west. Thanks.
Madeleine
Double-Heddle photos
You got it. I didn't take photos during the class, but I've still got the looms set up from the demo, and think that would be a great blog post.
What the kids do with yarn
Hello,
I have 5 kids and once I asked to help me with some sock loops (I would like to make rag rugs with them). I expained them how to make continious yarn joining the loops together. When I came back to the yard, I found a very long yarn, made from loops, going around our house and connecting our house with the next one. The kids told me that they had competition, who can make the longest loop yarn!
Eleni, Greece
ref: son weaving
Is your son retarded? Usually, retarded kids are very creative.
Memories of when I was little!
How fun! These pictures of your son's web really took me back - since I was born in January, my birthday parties were generally at least partly indoors, and, quite often, my Mom would make a giant web like this out of our living room! She's start with one piece of string for each party guest, attach a prize of some sort, string it all over the place, and end at the living room door. Then we'd each take a string and spend a happy hour or so untangling the web, crawling over and under each other and the furniture...
- Kristin, in Mass.
stringing webs together
I actually started out using yarn very much like your son does, and developed into plaiting to make stronger strands and then crocheted chains that started turning into things.
I stopped crochet when Mum bought a pattern and suggested I crochet a matinee jacket in some yuckee girlie colour for my cousin's baby! Much too boring. I did crochet a navy blue pig for my baby sister, it became a favourite toy. Didn't start weaving until my late 30s, so he's way ahead in that respect.
It's great that your son is making things up for himself and trying things out.
Best wishes, Dot.
How rude !
Couldn't you have put a small amount of thought into your comment ? I have a son who has Aspergers syndrome,a mild form of Autism . He would do this as well . but it's the way you asked it that bothered me. No this is not my post but geeze! Is all compassion lost?
Delores Goneau
Autism Awareness
Please remember...1 in every 67 boys is too many!
Autism is not a tragedy...ignorance is a tragedy !
variations on a theme.....
I love your son's wonderful creativity. I have a story along these lines. One Christmas season morning, my nephew created a version of your son's spider web, only with all the tape laying around from his mother's previous evening of package wrapping. I WISH I had a picture of that creation. Needless to say, it was a sticky suprise to his sleepy father going for morning coffee. hehehe!
An odd question
This is an odd question to ask. And put so bluntly, comes off kinda offensive. I'm hoping that wasn't the intent.
As for creativity: folks with mental challenges are creative, as are geniuses, and all us folks in-between. I think creativity is just part of being human. Some folks get told they aren't creative--and they can come to believe it. But both from time teaching creative writing, and now teaching weaving, I've yet to find someone who wasn't creative in one respect or another.
I appreciate the information about Asperger's syndrome provided by dgoneau. Autism in all its forms is on the rise in the U.S., and no one knows why. Some folks suspect mercury in vaccines, others say it's just that more folks are being diagnosed. It's worth study and attention.
Oh, and on a side note. When I was a kid, I spent one day a week at a school for kids who fell outside the cognitive norm. On the playground I discovered that the "gifted" kids spent a lot of time bullying each other and putting others down, where as the "retarded" kids were sweet and gentle to all they met. It gave me a whole new perspective on the value of intelligence.
Spider child
When I saw the picture of your son it took me back to when I was a kid and my brother did a similar thing to a chair. My parents took all sorts of pictures of him and the chair he had turned into art, as the winter sunlight came into the house. I can still see the pictures in my mind. Thanks for a lovely memory and I hope your son continues to spin webs.
Liz
Wow! This is so Great!!!!!!!!!!
Syne,
It's so wonderful that you and your husband support your son's creativity. This has brought back memories of my own son at about this same age. He loved to build traps and would use anything he could get his hands on. Now he's a dad with a new born. I wonder how she will express herself creatively.
comment on comment
That has to be the most extraordinary comment I recall tripping over. (In case there's any question, I don't mean that as a compliment.)
My colleagues and community (art community) have been called quite a few things but this is a new one. You really should do some thinking before you hit the enter key.
Jamie Jamison
your brilliant son
I agree, your son's room sized weaving are brilliant. And i am sorry some people have been so rude. I love that he is this creative and free, and i am sure is it partly because of your wonderful example.
My younger son's chosen medium was masking tape. One day, he was 5, he rigged the same sort of structure you show in the picture - outside, around the trees. We have about 80 trees in our yard, and i think he hit them all. It was amazing. We were all just overcome. Really, really cool. then a little anole lizard got caught on one, and we were suddenly transformed...he was thrilled he caught something in the trap (exactly what he called it,) but upset that it was not the Scary dog, from down the street, who had absolutely no chance of coming to our house, for whom the trap was intended. Anyway, we saved the lizard with olive oil, and negotiated a partial take-down of the installation. Some of it stayed up a couple of days. we still talk about it, now, 8 years later. There is less creativity as mine have grown older, and they spend more time with video games. The creations are more likely to be lego...but they will still stop everything and try a new technique with me (like the screening experience you had in your future blog posts.) Thank you for a wonderfully creative amusing blog!
pamela zimmerman http://www.PamelaZimmerman.net
http://bazketmakr.etsy.com http://www.needlegrabber.com
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