designing a knitting class

[to_love_a_rose]

So apparently I'm teaching a friend to knit this Sunday. It randomly happened via text message today, and now I'm a little freaked because I have to actually...teach her. I taught myself with magazines and books over a period of about two years, so I know nothing about the process of sitting down and learning to knit with an instructor.

I'm going to buy the needles and yarn for her first project on the understanding that if she enjoys it she'll buy them from me and if not I keep them for myself. I want to keep things simple and easy and inexpensive for both our sakes. I was going to make her first project a knitted dishcloth with a ball of cotton yarn. I'll grab a ball of Peaches and Cream and some size 7 or 8 needles.

I was hoping for some advice on teaching someone how to knit. What worked for you? What didn't? Wood, metal, or plastic needles?

Also, I've made up the pattern for the dishcloth since I couldn't find something that was quite what I wanted. It's a basic basket weave pattern. I've created things without a pattern before, but I've never actually written a pattern, and I was hoping you guys would glance at this and tell me if this seems easy enough for a beginner to read and work on on her own.

Rows 1-3: k48
Rows 4-10: k3, (p7, k7) 3 times, k3
Rows 11-17: k10, (p7, k7) 2 times, p7, k3
Repeat rows 4-17 3 times more
Rows 60-62: k48

Comments

[dragovianknight]

I learned doing dish cloths on metal needles, and frankly, it's a miracle I kept knitting after that. I would suggest bamboo needles to help grip the slippery cotton yarn.

(Disclaimer: I pretty much knit everything on bamboo or wood, even things that might do better with the slickness of metal. A bias, I has one.)

[jumpuphigh]

And I opened this post to comment that metal needles with cotton would be best for a beginner. :D I, as a non-beginner, use bamboo or wood almost exclusively.

[jumpuphigh]

I'd use size 7 needles Peaches & Cream yarn as size 8 just makes the weave way too loose.

The pattern is easy to read but may be too complicated for a first-time project. May I suggest Grandmother's Favorite? It uses 3 stitches - knit, k2tog, and yarn over. You only cast on and bind off 4 stitches.

[ames]

I was just going to suggest this! Let her learn the knit stitch first, and the purl stitch later. Plus, that's a classic pattern.

[jumpuphigh]

It's my "I don't want to cast on (hate it), don't want to have to think, must knit anyway" go-to pattern.

[twistedchick]

Wood, yes, please. Metal needles are slippery as hell and a horror story for a beginner. Plastic is unpredictable but tends to grab the yarn in odd ways so that the knitter tends to go too tight. Wood is easier to work with, lightweight, easy on the hands, will keep the stitches from falling off while not gripping them overly tightly. I tried to learn twice with metal but actually did it with wood.

[ghoti]

i actually don't think that the kitchen cotton is the best to start with -- it's splitty and can get really tight.

i'd probably start with some cheap acrylic (like red heart) and 8's or 9's, especially since i've noticed that beginners tend to knit *tight*.

also, attempting anything beyond simple garter on your first project is recipe for disaster. at least, that's my experience.

[seryn]

I generally prefer to have people make something they can wear. So I do foldover handwarmers. The kind where you knit a square, fold it over, seam the first inch and the last inch, leaving the rest open for a thumb hole.

This works well in garter stitch, stockinette, it does well with early color-work projects, texture motifs... anything you'd want to practice in a gauge square can become a vaguely useful thing.

When I teach children, they work with acrylic yarn because it's non-allergenic, thicker, sturdy, washable, and comes in vibrant colors.

The children learn the knit stitch, make a garter stitch square, then are encouraged to choose another small project. Like a narrow scarf, a small purse, handwarmers, square-into-bunny, etc. After that we encourage them to learn something new. Stripes, purling, two-yarns-at-once, drop-stitch for scarf...

It's my opinion that you should cast on for the first project for your friend. Obviously there is a need to know that to be self-sufficient, but getting someone hooked first is the idea before you add in all the other things.

[labellementeuse]

I generally prefer to have people make something they can wear. So I do foldover handwarmers. The kind where you knit a square, fold it over, seam the first inch and the last inch, leaving the rest open for a thumb hole.

Brilliant advice. I would get them to do a pair of these garter stitch (which looks really nice in handwarmers if you sew them so the garter rows run up and down the wrist). Then maybe a hat knit flat, starting with a bit of ribbing - this was my first project ater many years away from knitting and I found it super useful. Learning to rib straight away is good because you instantly learn to recognise knit and purl stitches, although I admittedly did make a LOT of holes.

[dragonfly]

I was a beginner two years ago and took lessons from an instructor. She had her needles and I had mine and she had me do what she did. She had me just knit row after row. It was surprisingly difficult to me just to keep remembering where my needle went to make the next stitch, and to count a certain number of stitches so that all my rows were even. Of course, even then all my rows weren't even and I had to get practice at having a consistent gauge. Also, it was difficult for me to reverse at the end of a row. Each time I started over I had to re-figure out which needle went in which hand and where I held the yarn.

So row after row of knitting was hard enough for me, at the start. FWIW.

[thistleingrey]

+1 cast on for your friend and let her practice on the stitches themselves. I was a beginner about three years ago (self-taught from books, though I knew how to crochet already), and casting on is still the part I find most time-consuming and annoying, regardless of which cast-on method I use. Or perhaps I am merely projecting my own bias onto the situation. :P

I did find bamboo easier to use with stiff cotton than metal needles, when I made my first dishcloth. Hardest thing was seeing the difference between purl and knit stitches from the prior row, to keep myself lined up on the pattern--so I rather agree that garter or k-and-k2tog might be best for the very first project. If your friend is good with spatial stuff, then it'll be easy for her to go from this to slightly more complex things without frustration....

[seryn]

I knit for 3 years before I could tell the difference between knit and purl in the previous row. Someone showed me, but I still couldn't see it. Even simple textures like ribbing were extremely laborious.

When I first started knitting, yarn on metal needles would jump right off. I was constantly dropping stitches and my hands would ache from trying to hold everything back. Consequently I would knit really tightly and that made my hands ache too. I was always fighting my knitting. Then I got wood needles and every stitch had to be plucked off, that was when I started to be in control for the first time.

[thistleingrey]

FWIW, it took me only a few simple projects to see the difference between k and p--which goes only to show (re: OP) that experiences vary widely!

[to_love_a_rose]

I will definitely cast on her practice swatch, and maybe whatever first project I decide on. Thanks!

[owlectomy]

I teach knitting at the library where I work. I've had some successes and some failures.

The kids like the bamboo needles once they've tried them because the stitches don't slip around as much. I find cotton to be too splitty and also too inelastic -- cheapish worsted-weight wool actually works much better, and non-novelty acrylics. Light colors are better because they make it easier to see your stitches.

Let your student get REALLY comfortable with just the knit stitch before you bother introducing purl, or knit/purl patterns. A garter stitch dishcloth or handwarmer is fine to start with.

I find it's easier to cast on the student's first stitches. After she gets comfortable with the knit stitch, then it's super-easy to introduce the knitted cast-on.

[to_love_a_rose]

My only fear is that a garter stitch scarf could get dull. I'm going to be prepared with a few different projects and use best judgement the day of. So many people have recc'ed wood/bamboo needles that I'm leaning toward them though I use metal myself.

Do you have a pattern for a simple fold-over handwarmer?

[seryn]

For the handwarmer, you want it to be measured off the wearer's hand. So double the width of the four-finger knuckles and long enough to reach the wrist (or longer if desired.) For me that gives about a 7"x5" rectangle. Then fold it over a hand and see how much should be sewn. (Thumb comes out the middle side seam.)

[squirelawrence]

I'd have to disagree with the recommendation of just doing garter stitch projects, as based on my experience unless your student is a kid, just garter gets fairly boring, fairly quickly (and, admittedly, I just don't like the way it looks). I liked having a project where you could see a pattern forming from different stitches - my first project was a ribbed scarf, and my second was the ubiquitous Irish Hiking Scarf.

That said, and while I like your pattern, cotton as a first project might be a little frustrating. As long as they're prepared to be patient with it, though, I think a washcloth makes a great first project (much faster than a scarf, no one cares if it's not perfect, you don't have to wear it in public, and you might actually use it!).

[to_love_a_rose]

You're thoughts are pretty much the same as mine. Row after row of just knit stitch has the potential to get really dull really fast. OTOH, my first project was a garter stitch scarf (made on size 17 needles so it went quick). I think I'll go prepared for a few projects and we'll see how she takes to the garter stitch sample swatch that I'll have her work on fist and go from there.

[yvi]

Yeah, I pretty much learned the purl stitch after 2 rows of knitting and it really made things a lot more interesting.

[redrose]

Not cotton - it's too inelastic. I start people on size 8 bamboo needles, and an inexpensive acrylic (usually wool-ease).

First project is usually a sampler scarf. I cast on about 40 stitches for them. (They want to learn how to knit, and learning to cast on delays that and can lead to frustration.) After they're comfortable knitting, I introduce purling. Then I turn them loose on my pattern books to select what stitch patterns they want to use in the scarf.

[aunty_marion]

Well, I'd agree with most other commentators - don't start her on cotton, it's not very elastic so it's sometimes hard to manipulate. Honestly, a modestly-priced, reasonable-quality acrylic is MUCH easier. DK/sport/worsted weight, and needles to suit. Beginners often knit tightly.

Also, I agree that you should cast on for her. You could show her what you're doing as you do so, if you like, but tell her that you wouldn't expect her to learn that skill first off, and once she's learnt the knit stitch, a basic knit or cable cast on will be easier to learn.

It will depend on how fast a learner she is whether or not you actually make 'a project' in a first session! Some people just can't get the right co-ordination first thing and need more practice. But if she catches on reasonably fast, then a garter stitch square is good, and you can then demonstrate how it can be used plain as a mat or coaster (or, if done again in cotton, as a washcloth!), or how to seam it as a wrist-warmer, or just keep knitting to turn it into a scarf.

Once she's comfortable with knit stitch, you can introduce purl, pointing out that it's an 'opposite' to knit. You might want to have a couple of small sample swatches on needles, one all knit and one all purl, to demonstrate this. When she's mastered knit and purl, you can introduce K2tog and so on, and let her loose on the knitting world...

[auntruth]

A couple more hints:

Another big vote for BAMBOO needles -- but do two things first if you get her a new pair. Use an emery board to put a slightly sharper point on the needles (most bamboo ones are really blunt, frustrating to use at first). Then shine up the length of the needle with a nail buffer to make it a little bit more slick. Will still grip stitches better than metal, but will slide more smoothly.

Keep a close eye on how she forms the stitch that begins a new row. That's been the hardest thing for several of my beginners -- when they turn the work, they leave the yarn in an odd location that makes the last stitch look like two stitches, and results in an extra stitch on the next row. After she's done a few rows, stop and look just as *you're* starting a first stitch of row, look where you have the yarn, then watch how she does it. Coach how to position things for that first stitch.

Do what you can to encourage her to "do it looser." Almost everybody has a white-knuckle death grip on the work at first, and some never get over it. Once she sees how to form the stitches for a few rows, encourage her to get a feel for how the thick-enough yarn sort of hugs the needle once you've looped it, and that you really don't *have* to keep it taut to keep it in position. Makes the process a lot less tense. Exhale, suck on hard candy, listen to mellow music.

Also, another big vote for starting by making a couple of small squares -- Pincushion! Sachet! Catnip toy! Barbie afghan! Felted coaster! Whatever! Aside from boredom, or discouragement, the really pernicious thing about long narrow scarves it that most people improve quickly, and the start of the scarf won't really match the other end of it. Also, by the time you do a couple of squares, your taste in yarn may have already changed. (The same phenom means new quilters are usually happier if they make a small pillow before they cut pieces for a bed-sized quilt [g])