Don’t tell the boys at the Newark Center for Creative Learning that knitting is a girl thing. The boys are having just as much fun in the newly formed Knitting Club.

In fact, it was a boy who got everyone started.

When 10 year-old Noah was taking a long train trip to Connecticut, his mother suggested he occupy his time by learning how to knit. He now proudly wears his red scarf and he’s working on his second.

“I like that accomplishment of making something. It takes a while, but it feels good,” Noah said while clicking his knitting needles together and working with two strands of yarn at once. “The hardest part is getting out the knots and losing and gaining stitches.”

It didn’t take long for Noah’s classmates to see his handiwork and want to learn to knit too.

Approximately 20 students, from third to sixth graders, joined the knitting club which meets one day a week at the Phillips Avenue school after classes are over. At first just the fifth and sixth graders met, but soon the younger ones were intrigued and joined them.

Teachers Marilynn Magnani and Nora Vadala spend most of their time picking up lost stitches or helping untangle large skeins of yarn, but for the most part, the students help each other.

“It caught on fast,” said Magnani. “It’s a skill they can remember their whole lives and can pass on to others.”

Even with the current resurgence of knitting among crafters in this country, the old skill fits easily into the students’ academic learning.

“Anytime you can get kids to concentrate, look for patterns, you are strengthening those skills that apply to academics, such as math,” said Magnani. “First they can’t see their mistakes, then as they are more accomplished, they recognize what it should look like.”

Patience is a big lesson in knitting a 36-inch scarf and seeing it through to completion.

“Some students are incredibly patient, others are not. Some that could not sustain their attention on other activities will rip out their knitting and start again. Something is motivating them,” said Magnani.

Eight year-old Mary Margaret doesn’t care about the motivation part. She just thinks knitting club is “pretty cool.”