Hi I’ve never posted before though I’ve read other’s posts. Love this site.
I’ve taught 6 adults to knit, some of whom even wanted to learn :yay: four of whom who have gone on to love knitting and do well, so I’m pretty confident as a teacher …BUT…
I’m teaching a highly motivated, reasonably bright 8 year old and it is much slower going for her to grasp what to put where. I know that each person has different spacial skills etc and I think all things considered she did pretty well. She is still enthusiastic and wants to continue. I could see as she got tired, she wanted to speed ahead and make senseless mistakes. I’m trying to be really low key and emphasise that mistakes are just another type of practice :happydance:and she seems cool with that.
My question is, IF you learned to knit as a child and you couldn’t manage to thread yarn between fingers on right hand, and thus dropped and picked up the working yarn, DID you later develop into having thread through fingers or did you keep the pick up and drop method for life? Am I making a mistake encouraging her to try and learn how to use fingers for tension but also telling her that for now whatever works for her is fine?
Also is there anything your teacher showed you or emphasised that was very helpful? We have used the knitting rhyme to help her remember the steps but it is only “so” helpful.
It seems that every time I see someone post on a blog who learned to knit as a child, they dropped it after that until adulthood. Does this always happen? Are you still glad you learned as a child?
Thanks ahead for any imput on any of the questions.
Susan in Idaho.
I am teaching an 11 year old right now and she picked it up quite fast but she is not threading the yarn through her fingers just yet either and I am not really stressing it although I am starting to show her how the stitches are more even if the yarn is pulled tighter and I notice that she is starting to try and figure out a comfortable way for her hold the yarn so there is some tension.I think it just takes a little getting use to ,I started knitting as an adult and I remeber when I started it felt like I had 10 thumbs on my hands.
I learned as a child and i didn’t use the traditional thread thru fingers thing. I didn’t drop it everytime, i just did what worked for me. I still use the same technique i did back then. It’s awsome that you teach! I try to teach people all the time but it’s usually against the students will!
I learned when I was probably 7-8 years old. I don’t really remember, but I think I was doing exactly like you’re saying, the “pick up and drop” method. I think at that age you don’t have the same dexterity as an adult, so it’s not necessarily a matter of if she wants to do it or not, it might be actually more difficult for her.
Now I use my “own” technique for tension but I definitely don’t use the same method as when I was a child. With practice, she will want to find a better way to hold the yarn and chances are she will come up with the technique herself. I think what you’re doing is fine - tell her and show her there’s another technique, but let her experiment and most of all, let her have fun with it! At that age you often want to see some progress, whether it looks good or not.
My mom never put any pressure on me to knit the “right” way or to teach me new things. To me it was just playing with yarn and needles. At the beginning all I did was the knit stitch, and my mom was casting on for me. I was only knitting endless scarves :teehee:. With time I wanted to learn how to cast on myself and my mom showed it to me. Then I wanted to know how to bind off and she showed me that as well. I was really going at my own pace, and this is what worked for me (but every child is different, of course). I just enjoyed knitting, I think it made me feel like a “grown up” because my mother and grandmother were knitting a lot.
I stopped knitting for a very, very long time but what’s great is that I never forgot! I think it’s the advantage when you learn young. I am definitely glad I learned as a child. I think learning to purl/increase/decrease was a lot easier because I had so much practice with the knit stitch, having done it so much as a child.
I learned as a child too (although I dropped it again through my teens) but both times I learned I dropped the thread and picked it up again. My mother felt that getting me to do the stitches right was the important bit, and since I gripped the needles way too hard as a child, threading the yarn would have been asking for trouble
As I got older, I learned other ways of holding the yarn, sometimes I do slip back into old habits but I keep the tension right anyway. I think my mum was right - that too many things at once makes it harder to learn sometimes, whereas starting with the stitch and building up to other things makes it easier for a child. When I learned to crochet as an adult, I learned how to hold the yarn at the same time as I learned the stitches, but I think our brains work differently.
My mother taught me at age 12, and initially I just let the yarn drop after each stitch. But as I got older I developed my own way of threading the yarn through my fingers. I think 8 is a little young to learn that skill – she’ll figure it out for herself as she gets a little older and knits more. My mom just taught me the basic knit stitch, cast-on, & bind-off, and then turned me loose to “play” with it. She gave help when asked, but otherwise left me alone. Maybe she was just too busy with lots of other children to get really involved, but her method worked for me.
I continued knitting occasionally until my early 20s, but took a break from it when I had children. Picked up where I left off 30+ years later. It’s like riding a bicycle . . . you never forget how! I taught my younger sister when I was 16 and she was 11. She recently bought some yarn and needles and started knitting again – 40 years later! She still remembers how!
I learned to knit by dropping the string. I had even learned to crochet before then but for some reason when I learned to knit I never could manage the thread going through my fingers and keeping an even tension. I later learned to do it.
I have taught all my children to knit. I started off just teaching them knit. They all made scarves that were just long garter stitch strips. This helped them learn tension, spacing, picking up dropped stitches, and keeping up with their stitches. It also reinforced the “groove” of knitting. After that they made a flat hat in stockinette that did not have ribbing at the bottom (so it rolled at the bottom). This taught them knit and purl. From that everything is based on knit and purl.
My younger daughter was 8 when she learned and had a lot of problem with straight needles, so I bought her a set of size 11 short bamboo needles. They fit her hand well and didn’t tire her arms out. My son (who is autistic) learned with a set of needles that I found at JoAnn that were made for kids and had a sort of rubbery coating on them that allowed him to keep up with his stitches easier. They didn’t just slip off the ends.
BTW, I never learned the knitting rhyme (have since learned it thanks to this forum) and so I taught my kids by saying, “Through, around, down and off”
I learned to knit when I was 5. I held the yarn between my thumb and pointer finger. At first I dropped the yarn between stitches - then I learned to keep a grasp on the yarn. To this day I hold the yarn the same way. I do not wrap the yarn around my fingers (although I can.) I knit to gauge and for the most part my stitches are even and look nice.
when my Great-Aunt taught me to knit. She was German and taught me to knit the continental method. I remember her telling me that she had to learn it in school and it was time I learned. If I tried to use my right-hand, she’d tell me no, no, you have to learn to do it the correct way…lol.
If she was still alive today, she would be 107 yrs old, so she was definitely old school. She knitted the most beautiful items I’ve ever seen. She went to Holland in the early 20’s and worked in a factory where the women hand knit clothing. After she came to live in the US, she worked in a factory here in PA knitting beautiful children’s sweaters…I think the factory was called “Infanta”.
Oh, well, I say as long as they have an interest, let them do what feels comfortable and nudge them into finding the correct way that works best them.
I was taught at around age 10. I never picked up and dropped, but I wrapped the yarn around my index finger 1, 2, 3 times depending on what tension I needed and what type yarn it was. Still do.
My grandma taught me to knit and crochet when i was 6. I learned to cast on (long-tail method), to knit, purl and bind-off. I always held my yarn on the index finger of my left hand and never actually had tension problem. I think some people have better coordination with their hands, so they get it faster and some are a bit slower. I have slow reactions in computer games, so i usually lose and some have the fastest reaction time… I guess it’s the same with knitting… Good luck with teaching
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=darkorchid]I taught myself to knit around the age of 10. I have always dropped the yarn and picked it up to make the sts. I can knit very fast this way. Contrary to popular belief it is not a handicap. :teehee:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]I’ve taught myself both English and Continental. English is annoying and slow for me. Continental is fast but I can’t seem to get a good tension, even after knitting a whole sweater Continental. So, I still knit and drop and do very nicely! [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]Just like people here that have decided to learn a new way to knit, your student can learn later on, too. I teach all my students just like I do it. I tell them there are other ways and if they are so inclined to want to know them, I’d be happy to show them. Every one has declined so far.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]Oh and I did combination knitting for 40 years before I found out it was “wrong.” So I taught myself the “right” way, and then found out combination wasn’t “wrong”, just different.:lol:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
I’m 12 now, I’ve always dropped the yarn and picked it up again and I’ve been doing that fo over a year. Sometimes I try to hold it the whole time, but I prefer the D and P method.
Thanks to all of you ladies (including our 12 year old senior member lol…makes me feel young to be a 45 year old "junior member) for your responses. I’m encouraged in my pursuit of teaching the 8 year old.
Regardless of if she makes a ton of progress knit wise, her mother tells me she is anxious to have another knitting lesson. I was taught the knit stitch at about 6 and only that, and didn’t finally break through to knitting and adoring it until 44. I used dvds and knitting help and taught myself initially. I’m so glad to live in the age of having such things so even those without a grandma or friend to help them can learn to do this most wonderful activity.
I learned to knit from my mother when I was about 8 years old I guess. I can remember having to knit in school once and I was one of the few who could already knit. (or actually purl, we were supposed to make a garter stitch swatch and I purled the whole thing. The teachers were amazed by that)
I quit knitting until a few years ago, so I think I went about 10 years without.
I used the pick up and drop method when I was a kid and when I started knitting again, I did already know how to knit and purl, but still didn’t know how to thread the yarn trough my fingers, so I used the pick up and drop method for a while. This became really painful in my hand as I increased speed and didn’t have to drop the yarn anymore, so that’s when I started to thread the yarn trough my fingers. I don´t think it was harder because I learned it another way when I was a kid. I have to admit, somehow I even got an even tension when I was dropping and picking up the yarn, but my hands are much happier with the threading method.
So don´t worry. If they are old enough they´ll learn to do it correct, if they are still knitting. Just be sure she´s having fun.
I learned as a child but I don’t recall how it happened. I can say that I did not drop it though, I kept knitting right through, crochet also, and I’m happy I learned as a kid. I don’t know that I would have the patience now to learn, and it’s such a joy to know how to knit.
My Nana tried to teach me to knit when I was somewhere between 10 and 12. English style, if I recall correctly. Our biggest issue was that while she knew how to knit, she had pretty severe arthritis (she’d had it most of her life) and it kept her from ever really knitting well. Her mother (my great-grandmother, who I am named for) was an amazing knitter. My dad still has sweaters she knit for him when he was growing up, and while the wool definitely shows some wear after all these years, they’re still so well constructed and all the stitches are so even and neat - I aspire to make similar garments some day! But my Nana, having been diagnosed with juvenile rheumatism, always struggled with knitting, and never really learned how to do it well because it hurt too much. So when she tried to teach me, many moons later, she struggled enough just getting the basics out, so it was a long and somewhat traumatic experience.
I remember eventually getting the hang of the knit stitch, but by the time I’d learned it well enough to have a long scarf (that I’d never use in Florida, to be sure!), holidays were over and she’d returned home, so I never learned to BO. :roflhard:
Eventually all those stitches got frogged and I have no idea what happened to the yarn or the needles. I never saw them again, and bought myself new needles (and yarn) when I decided two years ago that I wanted to learn for real this time. I do know I was very frustrated though, because all the directions I could find online were continental and I remembered using my right hand.
I guess my response isn’t really what you needed, but even (re?)learning as an adult, one of my frustrations and successes was in part to doing what felt right and comfortable for me. Hence, I’m a thrower. But as long as the stitches come out right, then I don’t think how anyone holds the yarn is really an issue. The popular methods are more of suggestions, aren’t they?
