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

[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.