Enquanto a Ana e a Rita se aventuravam alegremente pelos mares nunca dantes navegados do tricot, a E. aprendeu a fazer crochet com uma mestra. Pensou num cachecol e eu lembrei-me das sábias palavras da Elizabeth Zimmermann sobre a melhor maneira de ensinar uma criança a fazer malha:

An excellent first project is a garter-stitch pot-holder. It will probably turn out thin, lumpy, sleazy, and full of holes, but it is a small project, comparatively soon finished, and very easy to make much of.
Provide suitable and encouraging tools and materials. (…)
Then hang the pot-holder up behind the stove, and use it, and use it. It won’t be your most efficient pot-holder – it will give you many a burned hand – but use it. It won’t even be necessary to comment on its excellence or beauty every time you use it; you will be noticed, and the fact that it will soon become shabby, worn, and beat-up will be the best thanks and encouragement you can give. Soon its successor will be cast on.

in Knitter’s Almanac, 1974.*

*disponível na Retrosaria na próxima semana