Teaching a friend to knit.

Welcome to the world of knitting....... I'm always thrilled to get another person "hooked" oh I mean introduced to my favorite "hobby". But for me knitting has become a lifestyle and not a hobby but don't tell anybody. So when I get a total "knit-virgin" it's exciting. Yesterday afternoon my friend Carol and I visited our Local Yarn Store (Amano) on Venice Blvd. to pick out yarn and needles for her first project a 10" wide long scarf.

Carol's first question was "how long can I make it"? You can make it as long as you want or until you are tired of knitting it, whichever comes first. She picked out Noro Taiyo. Cotton, Silk & Wool bulky yarn. So it goes faster and it has wonderful vibrant colors, it's always more fun to see your knit change colors as you knit.

The first thing I showed her was picking up stitches, I had a garter stitch scarf in my knitting bag and I pulled it off the needles and showed Carol how to pick up the stitches and put them back on the needle. My friends at the store just looked on and wondered why I'm starting a new knitter with that task?
Often new knitters are very scared of loosing the stitches off the needles and panic, so I wanted Carol to see that it is ok to take your stitches off the needles and put them back on in case she makes a mistake she can always go back to the spot where the mistake happened. So we picked up stitches "frogged" and "tinked" first.

I cast on stitches for her because I feel she first needs to practice basic knitting and once she is used to knitting she can learn casting on. I knit continental and feel that is a more efficient way to knit so I teach continental as opposed to the "throwing" method.

Like this so well demonstrated on KnittingHelp.com



Carol was very excited and did really well and I look forward to her progress.

"In through the front door, up over the back, peek through the window and off jumps Jack"