One less Muggle

I tried to teach a friend how to knit once. It went very very badly. We were both frustrated and I don't think she'll ever pick up needles again.

So I was a bit hesitant to agree to teach a co-worker to knit. She said she knew how to crochet and always wanted to learn how to knit. I figured that at least she knew how to make a slip knot and about keeping even tension.

We finally sat down today at lunch for our first lesson. I cast on for her and told her not to worry about that part, that I'd teach her later. I showed her how to do a knit stitch and even recited the rhyme. She went stitch by stitch reciting the rhyme for the first row. Then she knit the second row, and a third and a forth. She kept dropping the left needle, leaving a couple stitches hanging there to be picked up again, but she did it and she learned how to hold on to that needle while wrapping her yarn.

Then we went onto purling. She purled 4 rows and the rhythm of her needles moving was so much more confident than it had been when she knit. She went into stockinette stitch almost effortlessly. Her tension was fairly even and she wasn't fighting every stitch because she was knitting too tightly.

I told her she was knitting a gauge swatch so we could figure out how big a hat she needs. I explained why a hat (thanks to the Yarn Harlot) and not a scarf and she agreed that she'd rather do something that had a lot less knitting than a 5 foot scarf and something she is more likely to finish and use before the winter is over. She is jumping in with both feet.

I sent her home with links to KnittingHelp.com in case she needed a visual reminder. She wants to knit again tomorrow at lunch.

I could get used to this converting the Muggle masses to our knitterly ways.