With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, a lot of we crafters who learned to knit from out mothers, grandmothers and other crafty ladies in our lives are rightly taking time to remember the contributions those people made to our lives. If your mom (or someone else's mom!) taught you to knit, I'd love to hear about it.

And if you're a mom (or a dad, or an honorary parent) who wants to teach a child to knit, let me tell you that it's an important, valuable skill that needs to be passed on to the next generation. It helps to have a willing kid, first off, but if you have one of those -- and you both have some patience -- you'll be well rewarded for any time you take to pass a craft on to a child.

If you need some help knowing where to begin, I have some thoughts on teaching children to knit, as well as some tips from readers who've taught kids knitting. (You can share your own, too!)

There are also more general tips for teaching knitting to anyone, and my learn to knit guide provides an overview of a lot of the steps you need to take, whether you're teaching someone or learning yourself. Happy Mother's Day and happy knitting!

I finally figured out what to do with that natural-dyed yarn I made a few weeks back. Someone suggested Easter eggs, which would have been really cute, but I had a lot of yarn and I wanted to try to use all of it, so I thought, why not a bunny instead?

The bunny takes a break in my girl's lawn chair. © Sarah E. White.

What came off my needles I'm calling a Striped Bunny/Animal because you certainly do not have to call yours a bunny. It could be a dog. Or a bear (though I might make shorter ears if that was the plan). Or just a hugable, loveable, made by you thing that some special kid in your life will want to hug.

For me, it will also serve as a memory of my fun dyeing experiments, but of course you could use any old medium weight yarn you have lying around. Make wide stripes in a couple of colors like I did, or leave yours a single color. Or go into your stash of oddballs and make a truly stripey animal for that special someone. Either way, I'm sure it will be adorable.

The knitting new is a little slim this week, which I think may have something to do with the fact that the weather is getting warm again on the top half of the world. But there are plenty of us who are still knitting, and lots who are still knitting to share the work of their needles with others.

A group at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Ohio recently donated its 2,000th knit baby blanket (well, some of them were crocheted, too) to the babies born at the hospital. The center's knitting auxiliary group has been meeting for 20 years and has lately also been knitting lap blankets for veterans. Women of the Holly Creek Retirement Community in Colorado have been knitting sweaters, socks, mittens and other warm goodies for babies in need around the world through the Warm Hearts, Warm Babies program. And a woman from Gobnascale (that's near Derry, in England) has been knitting up squares that were made into blankets that are headed to Lourdes, France, to comfort the sick there.

A French company called Golden Hook is helping people who can't knit get their hands on knit-by-granny accessories, even allowing customers to choose the knitting granny who will make their hat or scarf out of French merino wool. Cute!

The sheep of Old Sturbridge Village (that's in Massachusetts) are preparing to get their annual shearing over Memorial Day weekend. The big event will include demonstrations by collies and historians in period costumes scouring, carding, spinning, weaving and knitting with the wool. Knitters and crocheters who attend can lend a hand making scarves for soldiers in Afghanistan, and there will also be llamas and alpacas on display to help people learn about the differences between different fiber-producing animals. Sounds like fun.

In other New England fiber fun, the University of Maine Museum of Art (in Bangor) has an exhibit by Ruth Marshall called "Vanished into Stitches" from now until June 9. Marshall makes life-size knit pelts of endangered and rare big cats to raise awareness of conservation issues. And speaking of conservation, taking part in a yarn CSA leads one writer to think about her connection to the animals that produce the wool and how that expands into desiring local food for a whole host of reasons.

Finally, I've got word on a giveaway and a design contest for you. The good people of WEBS are giving away a gift pack and a "getaway gang" of Euculan products. (If you don't know about Euculan, it's a no-rise fiber wash that's great for knit objects or other delicate things.) The gift pack includes four 3.3 ounce bottles with different scents, while the getaway package has travel sizes of each scent, a travel sewing kit, lint-removal sheets and stain-removal wipes. To enter, leave a spring cleaning tip on the blog post linked about.

And Craft Foxes is giving away a $50 gift card to the person with the best interpretation of a Stefanie Japel design. The website is asking people to design a different version -- knit or crochet, mom or kid sized -- of Japel's Surfer Tee, post an image online and collect votes. The most popular (judged by number of comments) will win. Pictures must be posted by May 21.

If you're hoping to teach a younger kid to knit (and you know I will be in a few years!) it might be helpful to introduce the concept with a book or two featuring young knitters. While the picture books we've been talking about the past couple of days are great, there are also stories that combine knitting instruction with a story to get younger people interested in making something with yarn.

Gigi Knits by Karen Tahalacker. Martingale & Company.

Knitting with Gigi and Gigi Knits and Purls by Karen Thalacker are two books involving Gigi McGreedy, a talented young knitter who used to only knit for herself. In the first book she discovers the joy of knitting for people in need; the second features her exploits learning to purl. The stories in the books are written in verse, followed by prose knitting instructions. The first book deals just in Garter Stitch and offers eight patterns while the second uses Stockinette, ribbing and basketweave in its eight projects.

Neither book is very clear in terms of the specifics of what you need to complete a project -- there's hardly a mention of gauge and the patterns will say things like "one skein" or "four skeins" of yarn of a certain weight but give no estimate of how much yardage that might require. Because of that and other issues, these books are best used as a tool along with a knowledgeable knitter to teach the child, rather than as a way for the child to learn without help.

Show Me How Knitting by Susan Levin and Gloria Tracy aims for a slightly older audience and hopes to get new knitters hooked with the story of Mary Ruth and her brother, Jacob, who learn to knit from their grandmother when a power outage makes other forms of entertainment more difficult. This book is actually two books together in a case: one with the story and one with knitting instructions and a handful of patterns. This book is nice because the instructions are written in the voice of the young girl and because it advocates knitting a "practice strip," which will build confidence while still producing a useable project.

Do you have a favorite book to help kids learn to knit? I'd love to take a look and add it to my resources.