How do you keep your knitting away from your small children?

#1

I am so frustrated! DD just ripped out a HUGE amount of my Irish Hiking Scarf. I was almost finished with it, and she probably destroyed two hours worth of work. :frowning: Not to mention that trying to figure out where I am in a cabled pattern is really difficult for me ā€“ Iā€™m just not that good yet.

The thing is, it was in my knitting bag, which was stowed on the top shelf of my closet. DD is two, but sheā€™s a monkey, and can climb anywhere. The top shelf of the closet is a good eight feet tall, but that didnā€™t stop her! And all while I was helping her brother get a snack, so it didnā€™t take her long.

What do you do to keep your knitting away from your kids? (Assuming you have kids.) I am starting to think I need a freakinā€™ lock box to keep my knitting safe. This is not the first time this has happened, and I know sheā€™s just curious about what I am doing, but still ā€¦ ARRRGGHH!

#2

Holy cow! She got way up there, eh? Maybe you could make a small knitting organizer for hanging on the wall - in a high place, with no climbing apparatus nearby. :lol:

#3

Work a strand of electric fence wire into the knitting. After she gets shocked by two or three separate projects sheā€™ll be conditioned and probably never your knitting again.

When sheā€™s 25 and her friends are trying to get her into knitting, she wonā€™t undersand why she gets the shivers and freaks out in the presence of yarn and needles.

(just kidding!)

#4

:roflhard:

Maybe you could set her up with her own ā€˜knitting bagā€™? Just some yarn and notionsā€“no needles, of course. Maybe if she has that to play with she wonā€™t go after yours.

Other than that, a briefcase with a lock. :rofling:

#5

[color=darkblue]I guess I was lucky. My kids learned their boundries easily and early. ā€œAs soon as I finish this rowā€ taught them I wasnā€™t going to jump every time they wanted something.

I had a SIL who had a climber. Found her at 10 mos sitting on the kitchen table eating sugar from the bowl. At 3 yrs she fell off the tall chest of drawers and broke her clavicle (canā€™t think of the other term).

ā€œCreativeā€ childern require creative parenting. Good luck.[/color]

#6

[color=red]I just read Joeā€™s reply. Way ta go Joe!!![/color]
:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:

#7

:roflhard: to Joeā€™s reply

My daughter is two and nothing stops here either except I bought a bag that had a lock on it wasnā€™t what you would consider a knitting bag but it worked to keep her out of it but I hated that I had to keep locking it ā€¦ Now I can keep things in my orange bag closed up and she cannot get in itā€¦ I like Ingridā€™s idea cause Roo when I do forget and leave something down I catch her trying to knit with itā€¦ or while Iā€™m knitting she trys to hold the yarn like meā€¦ she knows she is not suppose to get into it so if I do catch her she usually throws it and runs off laughing :rollseyes: they also know mommy has to finish a row before they get what they wantā€¦ which took time to work on cause they were used to me just jumping when they said mommmmmiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee :smiley:

#8

Is your refrigerator tall? If so, you could store it up there. My son is 2 and quite the climber but my fridge is really tall so even when he pushes a chair over he cannot reach it as long as it is not on the edge.

Sorry she ripped it out but, in her defense, that must have been so much fun! :lol:

#9

How old is your daughter? If sheā€™s old enough you can start teaching her about ā€œmommyā€™s toysā€ and ā€œDDā€™s toysā€. Put it in a locked box for now and tell her that is mommyā€™s toybox.

If sheā€™s very young I would be careful giving her yarn. Keep an eye on her with it as she might eat it or choke herself.

#10

:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:

Actually, DH and I were just joking about putting up an electric fence around my computer last night. :shock: DD climbed the safety gate over the door to my office, climbed up on my desk, and inserted some ā€œmoneysā€ (that would be coins) into the CD ROM drive. We had to replace the whole drive unit (a dual drive, so also a DVD/R drive) last night as the ā€œmoneysā€ completely destroyed the thing.

In the past, DD has been known to climb over the safety gate, climb up on my desk, and attempt to eat the pushpins in the corkboard on the wall over my desk. (Itā€™s no longer hanging on the wall over my desk, as you might imagine.) The refrigerator is out, too ā€“ I found her on the top of the fridge at 13 months. Iā€™m telling you, I gave birth to a monkey! She is totally fearless! Luckily, we havenā€™t had any trips to the ER with her, thus far!

We are working on the ā€œmamaā€™s thingsā€ vs ā€œDDā€™s thingsā€. Like I said, sheā€™s two, so thatā€™s just now starting to maybe mean something to her.

Thanks for all the replies! I really needed to vent!

#11

You need a tall, climb proof baby gate. Or maybe a lockable screen door! :roflhard:

#12

Inquiring minds need to know!

She is quite the monkey! :smiley:

#13

Your child seems very inquisitive & intelligent! So, you could always give her some yarn & teach her to do finger knitting (or her version of it! There is a video of it here, just scroll down the page a bit :wink:

#14

my boys love my needles, that is what they get in my knitting for and usually they pull out/destroy a few rows trying to figure out how to pull the needles out of the knitting. I have a pair of cheap thrift store needles I give them on occasion but I have started just keeping it off limits. My kids donā€™t climb but I agree that you need a lock. Maybe a hook and eye at the top of the door, they have locking hooks she probably couldnā€™t openā€¦

#15

[color=blueviolet]Poor kid. Iā€™ve broken my collarbone plenty of times in my life and the collarbone and the tailbone hurt the worst of all. Trust me, Iā€™ve broken just about every bone in my body multiple times.[/color]

#16

She is very inquisitive and intelligent! Both of my children are very inquisitive and intelligent! Itā€™s kinda scary sometimes ā€“ they are always looking for a new challenge, learning new things, looking for adventure. For example, they both figured out the squeezy safety door handles (so that children canā€™t open a door, supposedly) before 18 months of age. I used to run a daycare and had five-year-olds who couldnā€™t get those things, but neither of my kids was slowed in the least. Yes, inquiring minds do want to know, Ingrid! Thatā€™s it exactly!

Being a mom is the most fantastic thing in the world!!! But it sure can be the most frustrating thing at times, too. :lol: Guess Iā€™ll just have to put a lock on my closet door and stash my knitting in there every time I put it down. I already had to buy a safe for all of our medicine ā€“ none of the child locks kept them out of the cabinets, either ā€“ so maybe Iā€™ll get another for my knitting! :roflhard: My DH would find that incredibly hilarious ā€¦ but then again, heā€™s got a door with a lock in his music studio, so he can laugh it up all he wants.

Jan, you would not believe the amount of money we have invested in different baby gates! I donā€™t think they make one that is climb proof for my DD, honestly. I know they say they are, but then she just goes right up over them, and sheā€™s QUICK, too!

Thanks for the finger knitting link, Rebecca! I think DS would LOVE that, though Iā€™m not sure DD is ready for it. Weā€™ll give it a try and see.

Now, to try to save my scarf ā€¦

#17

My dd is 3 and when I start some knitting she gets some of the yarn to play with. Miraculously (Sp?) this has kept her away from my knitting. When she was a year old, my needles used to go missingā€¦one day, I picked up my guitar to play (I donā€™t play much anymore but it stays on itā€™s stand in my bedroom) and I heard an awful racketā€¦she was hiding them inside of my guitar! LOL! Good luckā€“Iā€™ve had a few disasters like thatā€¦

#18

my 7 month old is the only one of my kids that will touch it. and i always know because its wet. other that she does no real damage. get one of those totes that you have to press the button to open.

#19

my son is the same way and my mother in law had a great idea she said I should buy a bunch of adhesive velcro and start hanging everything from the ceiling :roflhard: :roflhard:

#20

The problem with putting ā€œthe preciouss-sā€“sssā€ up on appliances or bookcases is that the little darlings climb and things can fall over on them. Hanging a basket isnā€™t a bad idea, but my little one would tip things out of it with the broom handle. (homo habilis)

The screen door is really a good idea.