Did You Find it Hard to Learn How to Knit?
Tuesday December 30, 2008
This week I'd like to know how learning to knit was for you. Did you take to it easily or was it (maybe it still is) a struggle for you to make the stitches and follow patterns?
I'd also love to hear if some of you knitters with more experience have any advice for those who might be struggling to master knitting. The most important thing, I think, is to keep trying and have patience with yourself -- the odds are good eventually it will click and you'll be off to the races, wondering what you thought was so hard about knitting in the first place.
Comments
I’m just learning how to knit. I’m still struggling with how to hold the needles in my hand and wrap the yarn with my index finger (picking).
I have 3 bits of advice for knitters who are struggling to learn: (1) Keep your hands relaxed; gripping the needles and yarn tightly will make you sore and produce ugly and/or tight stitches, which will make you more discouraged. (2) Try a variety of ways of learning. If a well-meaning relative has tried to teach you, and you’re not getting it, that might only mean that your best mode of learning is something else. Try videos (there are many online, or you can borrow them from library), books with plenty of close-up photos of techniques, take a class, try a different mentor, join a knitting group so you have friends you can approach for help. (3) Try process knitting, that is, just knit away without trying to create a specific object. That way you can just focus on technique, without the added pressure of following a pattern or worrying about how the scarf (or whatever) will come out.
Don’t give up! If you’re tired, hungry or stressed, put your knitting aside and walk away. It will still be there later.
I learned how to knit when I was so young that I don’t even remember learning. I enjoy the challenge of learning new patterns and techniques, but the knitting and purling are like instinct… I should thank my mom for teaching me so early!
I know there are some really good sites and books to show knitting, but honestly believe it is so much easier if one is shown how to knit by another knitter. Even if it is just cast on, knit, purl, cast off, once those are mastered the learner can hopefully progress further on their own.
I know knitting techniques can be improved by the way pins are held, yarn is draped over certain digits etc. But let the learner accomplish some stitches before insisting on certain methods. It is like writing, we all learned to print before doing “joined up”. It didnt mean we could not print afterwards. So let the “correct way” come into place once the confidence has been built. And, as for the “correct way”, many competent knitters have their own favoured “correct way”, and they do not all use the same method.
Knitting is to be enjoyed and this can be marred if restrictions are placed on the learner inhibiting their initial enthusiasm.
I don’t remember specifically having difficulty learning to knit, but then I knit garter rectangles for years before branching out. I do distinctly remember the first time I couldn’t tell knit rows from purl rows because it wasn’t a “struggle” to remember to purl. That’s when I decided I could really do this and branched out into hats, garments, etc.
So it was a struggle to move beyond beginning knitting for me. I agree with the other posters who have all said, if you can’t learn from someone or some particular book, try another!
I completely agree, Sandra, that beginners shouldn’t focus on a “right way,” just whatever way works to get the stitches made for them. And you can always improve your techniques later if need be and if those methods work better for you.
But a lot of people get so hung up on wanting to do it right they end up not doing it at all, and that’s no good.
My mother taught me to knit when I was about 6. the first project was a washcloth which instead of being a rectangle, was more like an hourglass because of all the accidental increases, decreases and split stitches!
I agree with what all others have said. relax, be patient with yourself, choose a simple project that will give you an immediate feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy the feeling of the wool and the beauty of the colour you’ve chosen.
Repairing mistakes was the best way to really learn the structure of the stitches, but that should come after you have some comfort with the basic knitting and purling. Practise makes perfect, not that we need to be perfect! Have fun.
I’m a decent knitter now, but I remember the hardest part for me when I started is to remember how to handle the needles & the yarn, and to make sure to keep the yarn behind everything. There are just details that you don’t realize matter until you’ve knitted and torn out your first few rows.
I’ve taught a couple people to knit since then, and they seem to have the same problems I did - hopefully that isn’t because of my teaching!
I agree ! Relax and be patient with whatever you’re trying to knit. I use knitting to help me relax and calm my nerves.
If your stitches are uneven, too tight or too loose; if you drop stitches or pick them up accidentally; if you become frustrated and tear the project off of the needles — know that most all of us have done this, too.
Cast on and try again. Practice on small swatches and go slowly to watch the rows form.
In all my years of knitting, I have found that I resort to this “starter” method when I take on a more difficult project that requires a little more patience and results in a positive learning experience.
I agree keep it simple and relax. I too was taught to knit at a young age. My Aunt taught me both how to knit and purl. I found it so easy that it was second nature.
It is all practice, practice. practice. I have taught my grandchildren to knit both like it but aren’t keeping up with it. That’s ok they have the ground work down pat. So if and when they want to start again they will be able too.
Please could someone tell me the easiest way how to teach my granddaughters to knit? Also to crochet? They are 8 and 10 years old.
Sarah,
You should have had a *It was so long ago I don’t remember* category here . I’m sure I struggled as a child, but then by the time Nana taught me to use the needles myself I’d been watching her for a few years.
I learned to knit in my teens from a lady who worked in the same office as I did. I really didn’t have any problems - I think - because I was older. However, my knitting wasn’t anything to brag about…loose, uneven stitches, etc. It just takes practice, the more you knit, the better you become. I am now 70 and still at it…my eternal problem is guage…….cheerio!!
I had a better time learning to crochet and sewing,but learning to knit has been very different .I am left handed so using a book was useless,I was able to learn purl and knit from a right handed friend and from thre I had to figure out the rest.One thing I would like to do is to learn toknit lace. At the end more like the beginning I end up with a terible knot in the neddles and complatly frustated. Somebody must remenber us the silent 15 percent minorities of left handed and publish a book for us.
I don’t remember it being hard to learn to knit - and I’m left-handed! I learned more than 40 years ago, and knitting and cross-stitch are my hobbies. Right now I’m learning to knit lace, and that is challenging!
My Nanny taught me when I was just little… I remember winding balls of yarn at 3 or 4 … its hard to remember a time when I didn’t know how to knit… I’ve shown many people how and the best advice I can give is take your time, count stitches every row until you’re comfortable and find out where the best local knit shop or “stitch & bitch” is so if you need help you can easily find some knitters who can help you out….For anyone with an iPhone, great APP called StitchMinder to keep track of patterns rows etc….. Happy Knitting!!
I can’t remeber how hard I found knitting but I can remember my Aunt taught me how to knit. Christine you may try using your little finger as the wrap around or tension finger and your index finger as the push the wool around the needle finger. Hoave a good new year every one and happy knitting.
I learned to knit so long ago that I can’t remember if I had trouble learning. It was a good 45 years ago or more.
I agree with all the writers who said “I was too young to remember”. I know I was 4 and my great-aunt taught me, but I don’t remember a time when I didn’t knit. I used to knit very tight and had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge. I worked at it and now knit true to gauge on the needles called for almost all os the time. Keep practicing and the techniques will become a habit you don’t even have to think about.
I tried to learn how to knit earlier this year. I signed up to take a class for “beginners” at a yarn shop near Atlanta that was going to be for two hours on Saturday afternoons. Imagine how discouraged I was at the first class to discover everybody in the class HAD knitted at some point before in their lives! There were even two women in the “beginner’s” class who had taken this same class in November and were there because they needed help on the projects they had started. As a result, the class wasn’t a beginner class at all. The instructor spent all of her time helping people in the class who were having trouble with things like dropped stitches or binding off. I was barely able to get the instructor to show me how to make a slip knot or start casting on! The rest of the time, I was totally ignored. I did return for the second Saturday, but it was more of the same. I left that lesson after only an hour in tears and never returned for any more lessons. My advice is NOT to sign up and pay your hard-earned money to take a “beginner’s” class at a yarn shop unless you are assured it truly is a “beginner’s” class. The needles and yarn I purchased for the class with such high hopes are now collecting dust in a tote bag in a closet. I don’t know if I’ll ever try learning how to knit again since this was such an awful experience.