BOISE, Idaho — Treasure Valley kids have been home from school since March 14th. And likely, unless you attend Nampa Christian, they won't be going back at all this school year.
That's a long time left to figure out how to fill the day at home and many have likely exhausted any and all ideas on how to keep busy.
But before you jump to the conclusion of kids these days, all they do is fill their faces with electronics. Not true.
Especially for one little Boise girl who has figured out a creative way to show staying at home doesn't mean you have to go it alone.
From the front it looks like any other Boise Bench house.
But one look in the back and you can see that the Holladay home is filled with four active and outgoing little girls. There's 4-year old Ellie, 6-year-old twins Nora and Claire. Then there's older sister Hattie, who at the age of 8, in just three days, is learning how to knit.
“I’m doing the knit stitch,” Hattie said. “At first I was having a hard time and it kept falling off, then Shannon showed me how to do it.”
Shannon is why Hattie isn't exactly by herself.
“She started out wanting to make a sweater and I said let’s start with a scarf,” said Shannon Arensman, her backyard neighbor.
Hattie started just last weekend when she had an idea.
“Oh, she just went into our kitchen and grabbed some wooden skewers out of our drawer and I asked her what she was doing and she said ‘I’m ready to knit,’” said Lari Holladay, Hattie’s mom.
Problem was, she didn't exactly know how. So Hattie walked out and asked Shannon.
“Could you teach me how to knit?”
“I said sure!”
So Shannon went out that day for needles and yarn.
“And we came out the next day and sat down and spent over two hours knitting!” Shannon said.
And every day since, Hattie has pulled her patio chair up to her backyard fence.
“She got me started again!” exclaimed Shannon.
And Shannon gets to unravel a long unused skill.
“I haven’t knitted anything in over 40 years, but I remember now, ha ha,” she said. “You just don’t forget, it’s like riding a bicycle.”
“To me the knit stitch is the easiest,” Hattie said.
So here Hattie and Shannon sit, separated by about 50 years, at least six feet, and one chain link fence.
All because a little girl, unable to go to school, wanted to learn, of all things - how to knit
“I’m tickled. She’s talking about starting a knitting club, ha ha,” Shannon said.
As a teacher Shannon doesn't consider herself top notch.
“Oops, gotta couple messed up, oh well,” Shannon laughed.
Then again, knit and purl stitches aren't all there is to learn in times of uncertain isolation.
“That’s the whole idea is make it as big as you want,” Shannon said.
Sometimes slowing down is the quickest way to figure out how we're all tied together
“And it’s time to get back to the basics and reality of we’re supposed to be here for each other and help each other through this whole process of life,”
With Shannon's help Hattie will be working her way toward that sweater one needle twist at a time.
“She’s the best neighbor in the world,” Hattie said.
Shannon says she was worried Hattie would lose interest after that first day when she had a little difficulty. She hasn't.
In fact, Hattie says she will bring her knitting to bed each night because it helps her calm down before going to sleep.
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