 Hi, welcome to ACMI's story and art for children. My name is Peggy and this is my friend Little Bear and we have a wonderful story to tell you just perfect for the end of winter. What's it about? Well, it's about a little bear who tried to hibernate but he got lost. No. Yeah, he really did. What happened? Well, he ended up in a very strange place but kind of a fun place and guess what, I'm going to tell you a secret. What? Tell the kids. Well, he learned to knit. What? Bears don't knit? Well, you know what, this little bear did. Is that why I'm wearing this sweater? Yes. Did he knit it for you? No, I knit this for you. You did? That's really fancy. Well, you know what, I want to hear the story, okay? I want to hear about this bear that got lost. Okay, so Little Bear, will you sit right over here? Yes. With your buddies and you'll all listen very carefully. Oh, sure. Let's get going. Let's get going. Okay, everybody, stay tuned. Here comes the story. So this is the story of the tale of Little Knitting Bear and he does look a little bit like Little Bear. So let's open up the book and see what happens. Little Bear was spinning round and round in the middle of a prickly pine tree forest. When he heard his father call out, Son, why are you twirling around so fast? Because I'm pretending I'm a compass, answered Little Bear. When I fall down and pick myself up, I'll know which direction to walk in to find the best place to hibernate this winter. Oh, what a great idea, answered his father. Especially since winter's on its way and our family will need to be tucked away and safe hollow logs before the snow falls. Just let us know which log you'll pick for yourself. Okay, Dad. Answered the Little Bear. I promise. When Little Bear picked himself up, instead of walking deeper into the woods, he headed north towards Bear Mountain Village, which always stirred his curiosity. As he walked along a footpath, he was drawn to a rustic, pitchy pine cabin, which he imagined was a shop. It had a sign on it, the Knitter's Hut. There were bags of yarn next to the east side of the cabin, which read, Free Yarn. And behind the Knitter's Hut was a weather-beaten porch, resting on logs which made just enough space for where a bear to hibernate. Little Bear bent down and crawled under the porch. He could look in all directions just by lying on his belly. This hideaway was much better than any bug-filled log he'd ever found for sleeping. So he felt so clever to have found this spot with his imaginary compass, and he decided to test it for the night. While he curled up into this little furry ball, Little Bear fell into a deep sleep. Until several days later, something woke him up. To his great surprise, he was completely surrounded by snow. Oh, no, he thought! How long have I been sleeping? He suddenly remembered the promise he'd made to his father. He'd broken it. Little Bear wriggled his plump furry body up from under the porch. He headed south, straight for a cluster of hollow logs under his favorite treehouse. His family had slept their last winter. He bent down and peaked into logs. He poked his paws inside. They were empty, and not one creature was snoring or snoozing inside. Little Bear checked the ground for familiar family bear tracks, but the ground was frozen. So he called out, Mom, Dad, where are you? No answer. All he could hear was the wind strumming the pine tree branches in the forest. A shiver ran up his furry little spine as he knelt on the cold hard ground. He knew in his heart that he'd made a big mistake. This was also the first time he'd broken a promise to his father. The smartest thing Little Bear could do would be to trace his footsteps back along the forest path and head toward Bear Mountain Village, that place where all those huts were. As soon as he spotted lights burning brightly in the village, he felt a wee bit hopeful again. And as Little Bear approached the back porch of the knitter's hut, he noticed that a blue light was there. It was turned on, and maybe it was going to welcome him back. Inside the knitter's hut, he could faintly see children and adults sitting around a table near a stone fireplace. All of their hands were moving, but he couldn't imagine what they were doing. It was a bit mysterious. Ice crystals covered the window. He was too tired to figure it all out, so he crawled back under the porch and went right to sleep. In the morning, Little Bear woke up, feeling chipper. He began stretching and doing a few push-ups. And to his great surprise, he bumped his left paw against the porch wall of the hut into a knot hole, and it fell right to the ground as if by magic. And guess what? It left a big open peeping hole for Little Bear to peer inside the knitter's hut. Little Bear was feeling very excited again. He got to his knees and ever so cautiously crept over to peek into the knot hole to see what was happening inside the room he'd discovered last night. There before his eyes were shelves lined with colorful, fuzzy balls. What were they for? Who used them? He was very curious. By mid-morning, several children came into the room carrying large bags. They were all wearing warm, woolly scarves and hats and sweaters. All of the children pulled pointy sticks and fuzzy balls out of their bags. And then when he heard this lady sitting at the round table saying these words, Good morning, children. Together, we're going to learn to knit hoods and scarves. What did that mean? What are hoods and scarves? I don't know. But Little Bear watched carefully. He was very curious and he wanted to learn anything he could about what they were doing. As fast as the children began looping the strings that were connected to the fuzzy balls around their pointy sticks, something amazing happened. Something long and fuzzier began to grow off those sticks. How did the children make it happen just by twiddling their hands? Little Bear opened his eyes and he watched and he squinted and he began to see the process more clearly. Once he saw the children take their long four-foot pieces of fuzzy stuff off their needles and wrap it around their heads, he wanted to make one too. After hearing the children say over and over, How do you like my hood in my head? How do you like my hood in my head? Little Bear had the perfect plan for making one himself. They were really saying hoods on my head, right? So first he had to head back to the woods and find two straight sticks and he would chew the ends off of them to make them pointy. And when he'd return, he'd sniff around the free yarn bags by the side of the hut and chew some of his favorite colors. After that, Little Bear figured he could curl under the porch and began making those hood in my heads fit for a bear. And that's just what he did. Look at him sitting there knitting and see that cute little birdie? That little birdie shows up a lot in the story and that was his little friend that would watch over him. So within two hours, Little Bear had knit himself a hood which fit perfectly. He hitched it under his chin with a little stick to keep it fastened. He was so happy and proud he jumped up and began doing a little dance. He twirled and bounced about on his knees. His head kept bumping against the floor of the porch. And after that, you know what? He felt about two inches taller because he had this thing on the top of his head. All of a sudden, out of the silence of that wintry cold morning an old lady appeared on the porch. She was wildly waving a broom. She screamed out, Whoever is hiding under the porch, better get out or we're going to come get you. She had no idea it was Little Bear. Look at her. She just wanted whatever it was to stop making noise. So this is what happened. Oh no. Now Little Bear was really in trouble. He was more than scared. He scrambled out from under the porch and headed for the woods like a furry streak of lightning. Luckily, he found an old familiar log. He crawled inside and he went right to sleep. In the morning, loud banging noises woke up Little Bear. He peeked out from under his hood of my head and saw men hammering large boards underneath the porch of the knitters hut. He was hiding across from the knitter hut, but he knew he could never go back. And the sign said, keep out. Don't ever come back. Well, Little Bear couldn't read, but he knew something was going on that he couldn't get back there. And it all seemed like a very bad dream. One Little Bear wanted to forget. He rolled over inside his log with a few sleepy bugs and had the longest hibernating snooze of his life. Now, three months later, something woke up Little Bear. He heard a few growls and scruffy noises outside of his log. Everything looked a bit fuzzy, but there lying beside his log was his father. Is that you, Little Bear? Are you okay? He said, and what's a funny thing wrapped around your head? Well, as the tale go, everyone in Little Bear's family was anxious to hear his whole incredible story. They were all very happy to have him back and made him promise to teach them how to knit a set of family hood of my head before the snow appeared again on Bear Mountain the next winter. And this time, Little Bear kept his promise and he taught all the animals and all the bears in his family how to knit. And he brought his little birdie friend along with him. The end. And then here's a little poem at the end of the book. How would you like to learn to knit? First, find some twiddling yarn, clicking needles, and a comfy place to sit. Ask someone to teach you. Sorry, it can't be Little Bear because he's sure to be teaching his furry friends deep in the woods somewhere. So you know what? Right now, if you know how to knit, that's wonderful. And if you don't, I'm going to show you in Little Bear how to get started, okay? Okay, Little Bear, did you like that story? Yes, I did. I want to know how to knit. Okay, this is what you do. You have yarn. This is the fuzzy stuff. And then you have needles. Oh, they're not sticks? No, these are real knitting needles like this. So boys and girls, if you have these or your mother has these or your dad has these, this is wonderful because if you get big needles, it's easy to knit. So I'm going to show the kids how to knit and you watch too. We could make us water together some other time. Or a hat. So here we go. First, you take a string, the yarn, and you make a loop like this. Then you put the needle through, like that. And you do what's called casting on. And that means I'm going to put a few stitches on that needle. I'm going to go one, two. I'm looping here with my thumb. I'm putting it in. I'm going it around. And then I loop this over. I'm going really slowly so you can see again. You go make a loop with your thumb. Put the needle in. Go around. And leave it like that. I'm going to go five stitches and all. Here I go again. Make a loop of my thumb. Go underneath. Go up and around. And slide it off. Now I'm going to take the second needle. And I'm really going to start the knitting part. So here we go. I have five stitches. I'm going to head for the first one. I'm going to go on this side of it. I'm going to take this long thread. I'm going to go up over this needle. And then I'm going to push it off. I'm going to go up on this side of the needle. Go up and around. And push it off. And if you say it to yourself over and over. Just what I'm saying. It will be very easy. Go into the side. Go up around the top. Push it off. Needle at the side. Around. And then what? Push it off. You tell me. Go under. Go around. Push it off. Is it a little bit bigger? Yes it is. So now I'm going to go one more time. Go up and under. What's the next one? Go around. And push it off. Go under. Around. And push it off. When people really get crazy about knitting they just go like this. And some women you see it and they can do it in their sleep. Oh that's too fast. I'll do one more row and then we'll stop. Here we go kids. What do we do? Go under. Up and around. Push it off. Under. Around. Push it off. Push it off. And that's what we got a little thing. It's not a scarf yet. No but you have to keep doing it. All day? Well it goes really fast. This could be a belt or anything. So how about it? So boys and girls if you think you'd like to knit and you didn't see enough here you can go on YouTube and they have wonderful channels that will show you how to knit. And I have to tell you that in the olden days and many of them when they were sheep herders used to go up in the hills and they'd wait all day and watch those sheep. But you know what they do? What? They would take their knitting needles and they would knit little pouches and they would stick snacks and all kinds of things in them. Oh good. So boys and girls knit. Yes boys and girls. And there was someone at the Olympics he got nervous all the time about what he had to do He'd knit. Yes and he'd knit hats and scarves and designs and it was just amazing and they thought that was quite interesting. Oh I do too. Okay little bear want to say goodbye to everybody for now and then we'll see them next time with another show of stories and art for kids. Okay guys. Bye. Bye everybody. See you next time. And now I would just like to say one or two more things. Years ago there were these knitting groups these women and men would get together and they would sit and knit groups and instead of talking all the time I thought what if I wrote a little book for knitters and I am going to show you one in just a minute and it's filled with knitting puns and you know what puns are adults and they're just so fun so we're going to switch over to that so stay tuned and watch the beginning of my book and I'll share several of my puns with you it's called for knitting knitters only. Okay well now here's some of the things that I had fun knitting in knitters groups here's a little hat and there were these collars and they had all kinds of fluffy yarn all kinds of things you know because they were winter and another hat I'll just put this on my hat while I read this story and maybe everything can come to life alright and scarves last year I knit about a hundred scarves and that was fun and people would get into very fancy sweaters and be talking and talking I knit this years ago I could never do this now I don't have the patience and I'm glad that I wrote this little book at this time and I hope I can entertain this entertain you with this and the name of the book is for witty knitters only and it's a series of puns and I took all the words having to do with knitting and I laid them out and then I started playing with them in my mind and I'm telling you this because you might have fun writing your own puns afterwards and this book is very New England based so I sold it to shops in New England and they had fun with it and the book as you see in the beginning is dedicated to my aunt Scudder and guess what she taught me to knit and crochet when I was four years old so I've been doing this a long time so let's get going with the funny questions of puns. Alright a new wave of signs have been cited along the Atlantic coast for vacationing knitters how might they read? Oh knit now don't yarn for the past don't cast off your bridges oh sorry we meant stitches we love to get right down to the nitty gritty and bath and then on this card says knit together for life K1 P1 K1 P1 and you all know that's knit one per one so those are the wonderful signs for knitters only so here's a question what is the most widely circulated newspaper read by East Coast Tourist? Of course the Wool sweets journal and then we have 16th century author might have penned the words McBeth thou must wash thine hands thoroughly after thou dynast unlobster William Shakespeare what are experienced knitters tempted to do when they drop a row of stitches in their intricate cable knits ah commit oh excuse me knit hairy carry you know how that is when you drop stitches when they're knitting not fun let's skip here when Nantucket gourmet cooks make clam chowder what ingredients do they exclude from their recipes knit traits mm mm mm and then we've got what piece of pop music inspires speed knitting in province town woolly woolly remember that song you can probably start singing it and sing it all day oh this is my favorite what do balding fishermen in Gloucester wish they had when their hats blow off in the high seas mohair okay how would you coach a clam digger to propose to a knitter you just tell him honey just get on your knees shell out a ring and say honey woolly be my bride I hope you're all laughing and how will he entertain her in the years ahead by reading her Burton eye jokes which she is when she's in the shower just keep her in dripping wet stitches ha ha ha a cat breeder near Pemaquid point who loves to knit recently bred her main coon cats to have special features guess what they were see were the yarn spinning tails oh I love this one and this some of these people here will date the time when I wrote this book what late night taco host keeps many a knit a pest midnight as he unravels his unpredictable juicy yarns well of course David sweaterman don't know where David is these days let's see what do crafty touchy feely women put out in front of their B&B doorsteps furry welcome mats here's a goodie what German philosopher challenged the minds of intellectual knitters during their college years nitchy what creepy character in children's literature might stir the heart of a knitter living in a remote woodland area in Vermont the big bad wolf I'll do you just a few more oh here's a goodie what is the most prestigious governing body in the UK revered by descendants living in New England of course Parliament what might be New England's least favored pro basketball team the New York Knits I hear the people roaring and what might be New England's favorite pro baseball team of all time of course the Boston Red Sox I guess it would be Knit Sox what might you call someone who sat on a rough knitting hour after hour into the night a booty knitter sitting on her booty alright what strategy might a warm hearted man use to soften the heart of his needling wife he could send a card saying through all our wild and woolly times I still yarn for you darlin and then I've got one here who is the greatest of all twangy country western singers loved by female driving knitters William Nelson that guy is still alive singing he's amazing now there was one I just loved here that was just two oh here's a goodie what kind of a man has a difficult time marrying a creative independent woman a man who can't kind of nail polish through knitters prefer wearing in the Hamptons per lesson nail polish and oh I like this a sweet old lady on Cape Cod was commissioned to knit a set of muscle warmers for a prominent weight lifting politician who was he of course Yarny Schwarzenschwetter and I think I have one more that is one of my favorites oh heck here we go a new TV reality program based on a popular 50s detective series features a sergeant who dresses like a woman guess what they name this next program dragnet a dragnet I had one here that was very funny but I cannot find it but anyway that is my book of for witty knitters only and if you'd like to send me some puns I'd love to hear your puns and if you'd like to buy a copy of this book just send me an email at mlpvenner at gmail.com I have a few books left I've probably sold 200 of them this is the last of the batch but it will be fun to hear from you and if my book has inspired you to write puns I yes again would love to hear them thank you for standing by bye for now