Ta-da! My husband Matthew's very first piece of knitting. Well ... his first successful piece of knitting; there were a few previous attempts to teach and be taught that were ... less successful. These were dark times which we shall not discuss. This time, I did a few things differently and (le gasp! le shock!) successful, angst-free knitting was achieved.
Tips for teaching knitting:
(Note: as a happily addicted knitter, I realize that the urge to force - er, encourage - your friends and family to learn how to knit will be strong. Resist this urge. This method of instruction will do bad things for your relationships. Ask me how I know.)
1. Find a project that your student really likes that they can aspire to. It's a lot easier for the uninitiated to see the wonders of a gorgeous sweater, the prospect of cheap Christmas presents, or (in my husband's case) the siren call of really amazing socks than it is to grasp how much they might enjoy the process of knitting which (newsflash!) they've never experienced. I know it seems obvious but it took me a long time to figure out that I was trying to sell him on the wrong angle. Think tangible.
2. Use a light color of yarn. It's a lot easier to see what you're doing with a light color than it is with dark. Dark yarn turns into an amorphous mass on your needles; light yarn lets you see each individual loop so you can see if (when) you've made a mistake before you're seven rows down the line. It doesn't have to be baby-colored. Something like bright orange or fire engine red would work just as well.
3. Use plain yarn. Something worsted (this is the same weight yarn you usually use for afghans) that requires needles between 7 and 10 (US). The world is filled with the most wonderful novelty yarns, more varied and more beautiful than the stars in the heavens ... (Whoa there, Libby. Reign it in a little.) Anyway, my point is - there will be a time and place for introducing your student to the beauty that is abundance of choice. This could even be a good way to get your student interested in the first place. But for the first couple of lessons, stick with worsted. Once your student has internalized the motions of knitting, then you can graduate him or her to yarns that are harder to handle.
4. Use short needles. In our case it mean using a pair of my double pointed needles. When you're just learning, managing foot-long needles seems far more daunting and just makes the whole experience more awkward and less enjoyable. I expected that we would have an incident or two that involved sliding half of the stitches off the wrong end by accident, but this never happened. (And if it does? Just pick them back up and go on. No worries.) I hold the size of the project partly responsible. Even with the stitches spread out, there should still be an inch or more of needle on either end of the knitting, making it much less likely that the stitches will decide to jump ship. And speaking of which ...
5. Start with a small project. Scarves (that is, scarves for adult humans) are the traditional first project but they are also notoriously difficult to finish. Think about it. Despite the very attractive simplicity of knitting a rectangle, you and your student will be embarking on a five foot long relationship with this thing. This is a really long time to go without the satisfaction of completing your first project. Pick something equally simple but smaller, such as a simple hat (knit a rectangle, sew the ends and gather the top), a washcloth, or a baby scarf.
6. Establish the knit stitch before you try to move on to anything else. To you, 2x2 rib, seed stitch or stockinette may be easy and attractive and fun, but try to think about from their perspective. Learning how to do two things at the same time (two opposite yet similar things, and thus very easy to mix up) is just not a good idea. Likewise, anything that involves counting (even if it's just 1-2, 1-2) is going to complicate the process unnecessarily and will lead to having to rip out stitches at some point. Garter stitch is your friend. Stay there for the duration of your first project.
7. Give your student the most helpful advice I have ever heard. In the immortal words of the knitting wonder, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee: "You're not defusing a bomb." In other words, loosen up. Relax your shoulders and release that death grip on your needles. At this point, tight knitting is the enemy. It will give you cricks in your neck, shoulders and hands, and it will make the next row of knitting progressively harder. Start out loosey-goosey and worry about tightening things up later.
Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment