Project keeps students in stitches

Every year, Liz Sorlie's fourth-grade curriculum includes an unusual subject: knitting.

In January, the Helena Flats teacher arms each student with needles and yarn and shows them a basic garter stitch. The kids enthusiastically make scarves and bookmarks; then, when the weather begins to warm, their interest begins to wane.

This year's class is different.

Even on rare sunny days this spring, Sorlie's classroom has been packed during noon recess. Instead of grabbing jackets and heading outside, her students are reaching for yarn and staying at their desks.

Impressed by their dedication, Sorlie suggested a project. Why not learn to make hats, she said, and give them to newborn babies?

"They just jumped on that," Sorlie said.

And so Beanies for Babies was born. The name was just a casual moniker Sorlie tossed out one day, but her students embraced it as rapidly as they had the idea.

"It's not an official program," she said, trying to explain to her class that they could call it whatever they wanted.

"No, we like that name," they told her.

Their enthusiasm was turning into impatience to get started. But first, they needed yarn - a lot of it - and other supplies.

"In order to do this, we need to raise money," Sorlie told her students. "We need the right needles. I can come up with a pattern."

She didn't want parents to have to pay for supplies, so Sorlie and her students planned a pair of bake sales. The kids baked cookies and made signs, then set up shop in the school cafeteria.

The first bake sale brought in $115, and the second earned a whopping $180, fourth-grader Kyla Reed said proudly.

Sorlie took their earnings to Camas Creek Yarn in Kalispell, which sold her supplies at a discounted rate. She stocked up on pairs of circular needles and easy-to-work-with acrylic yarn in a variety of colors.

Once she taught them the pattern - a simple stockinette stitch that she had found online - Sorlie turned her students loose. And in a matter of weeks, they have turned out a score of tiny hats.

"I just want to help the babies that need the hats and stuff," said Madison Prangley, who was working on her first hat.

"I'm glad Mrs. Sorlie thought of Beanies for Babies," agreed Jaimie Davis, who already has one hat to her credit and is in the middle of a second, variegated pastel beanie.

Looking at the finished hats with their neat, even stitches, it's hard to believe that a few months ago, many of these students didn't know how to hold the needles properly.

Of course, the work doesn't always go smoothly. Jenna Derosier is on her second hat, but only because her first hat met with disaster.

"The stitches came off. I messed up, and now I have a huge hole," she said with a slight shrug. "That one's at home."

Many of the youths take their knitting home after school.

"There's usually nothing to do at my house when I finish my chores," Davis explained.

They also knit at school more often than just at lunch.

"Sometimes when we're done with schoolwork, we can read or knit," said Natalie Krueger, who nearly always chooses the latter.

Sometimes Sorlie lets her students visit with their neighbors while they work. Sometimes she reads to them while they knit. And sometimes she has to remind them that they're at school to do more than knit.

"During lesson, sometimes I tell them, I need the knitting to be put away," Sorlie said.

Even putting the needles away doesn't always make the knitting stop, Lorissa Glover said.

"Sometimes when you knit for a while, you stop and your hands just keep knitting," she said.

Knitting is the best part of school, Amber Sletterink said. In addition to a baby pink beanie, she is working on a scarf of the same shade.

"One of the main reasons I like to go to school is because I get to knit," she said.

The class will donate their finished hats to North Valley Hospital and the Flathead City-County Health Department, Sorlie said. She hasn't yet called Kalispell Regional Medical Center, but judging by the enthusiastic response her students have received from the other two places, she suspects the hospital would welcome their beanies.

Sorlie has supplied booklets for her students to record the hours they have logged knitting and baking for the project. It may come in handy on their college applications, Sorlie said.

The kids aren't thinking that far ahead. They're just excited to help someone else and truly love knitting.

"I could knit all day," Abigail Fiske said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com