Comment by caitlyn

September 30, 2005 @ 8:13 am

How neat that you are teaching 4 classmates to knit!! You are great at explaining techniques, so they are lucky to have you as a teacher!

Comment by Stephanie

September 30, 2005 @ 8:15 am

I’ve taught a couple people to knit and think it’s harder than it would seem. I did find that it makes me really think about the mechanics of it. Pictures are good (and demonstrations are better) because some people can’t read how to do it and do it - they need you to show them. The other thing I noticed is that figuring out how to hold the yarn and maintain tension is tricky for a lot of people.

Comment by Angela

September 30, 2005 @ 1:54 pm

I second what Stephanie said.. holding yarn and tension is hard to teach. If you know English and Continental, you could try showing them the opposite, if it seems as if they’re leaning towards doing it the other way. Rhymes/chants help some people too.

When we have knitting nights at my friend’s place and there are new knitters, we always email them links with animations or videos to help them refresh their memory.

Comment by Lynette

September 30, 2005 @ 5:18 pm

I tried to teach a friend at work and what I learned was that it’s difficult to teach anyone in a busy environment. So if you can teach them at your apartment where there’s not much distraction, that will help. Also, people get a little frustrated that they can’t knit right away. Next time I plan to cast on a few stitches ahead of time so that they can get a feel for the knitting portion without feeling flustered about the cast-on. The cast-on will come much easier to them if they have already knit a little bit.

Comment by Ruth

October 5, 2005 @ 1:24 pm

yea, i’ve also noticed that everyone has different learning paces too. some friends have watched my knitting motions (when i do it really slowly to show them) and they pick it up really fast. others, it can be a struggle and you have to guide them through very closely, stitch by stitch. so far i’ve found that the most comfortable teacher/student ratio i can handle is just 1:2 (no more than that!)

i also usually have people do a swatch first - knit stitches, purl stitches, and if they are up for it, some increases or decreases. and THEN a project. with my hubby’s little cousin (13 years old), a scarf was too big of a first project. she lost interest really fast (i’m thinking a small coin purse would have been better of a project for her attention span). =P