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

[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!