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How did YOU learn to knit?

By Tara, on September 7th, 2009

Today, as I work on writing my “Learn” page, I’m thinking about how many different ways there are to learn to knit.

Learn to knit

I’d like to ask you (yes, YOU!) how you learned to knit.

Please share your story below in the Comments!

(Not a knitter? Think you might be? Sign up for the Maybe-Knitter e-course (free!) to find out)

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  • DangAndBlast

    Technically, I believe someone showed me once when I was small; mainly, though, I learned the way I learned all the other crafts except weaving (there, I had a teacher!) — the World Book Encyclopedia and subsequently pattern books. I can learn by reading a written description quite well (lucky me), so there you go.

  • DangAndBlast

    And, for some reason, the disqus buttons (like “post”) aren't visible to me in Firefox… weird. Had to use IE.

  • http://blondechicken.blogspot.com blondechicken

    Wow! This is definitely the first time I've heard from someone learning to knit from an Encyclopedia!

    Tara

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  • http://www.victoriabrouhard.com/blog Victoria Brouhard

    I first learned to knit from a book (“The Knitting Experience”, I believe). It got me as far as casting on, and knit & purl.

    But I found I couldn't translate the more complicated steps in the actual knitting projects from the words on the page to what my hands and fingers needed to do.

    It's a work-in-progress. :)

  • girlinredshoes

    I learned to knit the summer before first grade. My mom was running a Waldorf preschool out of our home and several of the moms were knitters. I remember approaching one mom who was knitting a bear stuffy and asking her to teach me. We found some chopsticks in the kitchen and I think I used some kind of cotton string. And thus a new yarnaholic was born, though the problem didn't become apparent until about a year ago! :)

  • http://blondechicken.blogspot.com blondechicken

    Oh, that's a good book!
    I'll point you towards my videos once I have them up, and we'll see if that helps!

    Tara

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  • xiane

    I learned to knit from a simple “how to knit” pamphlet that I picked up at some craft store, with support from various knitting websites. Purling, however – I was browsing knitting magazines at a Big Box bookstore, and another knitter struck up a conversation with me. When I revealed that I was a new knitter and couldn't get purling, she pulled out her current project and taught me on the spot. I am grateful to this day! [and that's SUCH the spirit of knitters that I know, so eager to help each other out!]

  • tattyfraney

    Well… I tried to learn from my mum several times but it just ended up in screaming and sulking. Then a few years ago I stalked this American lady who lives in Ireland now and who started the stitch&bitch meetings here and got her to teach me. i still only know very basic things and can't do anything fancy, but i am happy with how things are coming out!

  • http://www.wbnm.typepad.com/ Beverly

    I learned to crochet at 14, but I really wanted to knit…all of the women in my family were crocheters, though, so I didn't learn until I was an adult. Martha Stewart Living had an article that taught the basics. I went to my LYS (it smelled like moth balls! it was tiny! lots of acrylic and plain worsted wool! I was the youngest person in there by decades!), bought needles and purple worsted wool, and the lovely, grandmotherly owner showed me how to cast on. When I couldn't “get” the English style she showed me, she taught me to knit Continental instead. Now I knit English to get better gauge, but I still like Continental a little better. I didn't know that you had to keep the finished piece of knitting to the right of the working needle, so that was one wonky scarf. I gave it to my ex-husband's drummer/bandmate, and he kindly wore it, as awful as it was. I was smitten by knitting!

  • fracksmom

    I learned how to knit from my mom as a young child, over the years i have learned new stitches from books with the patterns I was doing. I have taught knitting and it is easier the younger they are, but people with an interest learn to knit in one lesson, purl in the nexy

  • carmen

    Taught myself one summer from a library book, got the yarn & needles from Woolworth I want to say 1978or 1979. Learned how th crochet at age 7 from mother so holding the yarn as crocheter I taught myself the continental method not knowing that it was any other way. That was 30 years ago. Many sweater, hats, vest, scarfs, mittens and babby blankets latter. Never done a pair of socks have a thing with needles being over the size 6.

  • me

    One Thanksgiviing after we sat around, full of all the turkey and dressing with cranberry sauce and buttery mashed potatoes. I had my first lesson. It did not stay with me. I needed several lessons. Finally after switching to a good wool/slik yarn, I found it much smoother to make and keep my stitches.

  • Genesneaky

    My grandmother taught me to knit before I could even read when I stayed with her for a week in the summer. She for out some plastic needles and cast on some stitches in acrylic and patiently showed me how to knit (throwing yarn). I knit a little rectangle as a “blanket” for my Donald Duck. From there She helped me make a little striped scarf for Donald in cream and yellow and red acrylic. I didn't knit again till I was a senior in college and knitting was picking up popularity again (2002/2003). Between going to the craft store with my Mom and the internet I cast on and knit a scarf for my boyfriend. Now I knit all the time (and have made him a newer and better scarf) and have all my yarn stored in my Grandmother's Lane hope chest she got when she got married in 1939. Perhaps I owe my Grandmother a knit present.

  • http://blondechicken.blogspot.com blondechicken

    Thanks for commenting, Mom! :)

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  • http://blondechicken.blogspot.com blondechicken

    Thanks for commenting, Mom! :)

    ________________________________

  • Pingback: Was Learning to Knit Hard? | Blonde Chicken Boutique

  • Name

    I was on a road trip to Tennessee with my best friend a few years ago. Zooming around the mountainous highways in a little silver VW bug, I grew slightly bored, as it was my friend who was doing the zooming. Being an incredibly talented and rather avid knitter, the best friend suggests I pull her knitting accoutrements out from the back seat and become her student of fiber art. I'm not interested. It's a fad. Cameron Diaz knits. No thank you. The best friend does not accept my pathetic response and demonstrates proper needle movements with her index fingers. Thankfully she just used her index fingers while the other 8 digits were busy clutching the wheel. I mimicked her hands with my own and very quickly formed perfect little stitches all along my needle. By the time we reached our destination, we had stopped to purchase my own knitting supplies.

  • http://blondechicken.blogspot.com blondechicken

    Aw! This is my favorite story EVER! (Maybe because I'm the clever best friend?)

    Love you!

    Tara

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  • Susan Howell

    My Mother taught me when I was 8 years old. She learned as a child from a neighbor that was a war bride from Germany. Mom says we knit continental.

  • Josephine Washington

    I learnt at school in the 1950's in the UK, it was part of 'Domestic Science' – i.e. trying to turn us into submissive housewives!! Not me……I was a teenager in the Swinging 60s and 70s. Now it is cool to knit and boys do it too. Sites like yours keep us silver surfers cool and ALIVE. Still knitting now I have retired to live in France and have just dusted off my old Haldanes spinning wheel. Thanks for the inspiration

  • Pingback: Learning to Knit – My story | Blonde Chicken Boutique

  • http://www.etsy.com/shop/mbrigid MBbyBrigid

    at 22, after my boyfriend of six years and i had broken up. i needed something cheap to do that required enough brain power to distract me from my broken heart. i hopped onto the nearest computer searched: knitting, how to. i followed step by step directions that were followed by pictures. who would have thought i would still be knitting and now selling my knitting ten years later!?!?

  • http://www.etsy.com/shop/mbrigid MBbyBrigid

    at 22, after my boyfriend of six years and i had broken up. i needed something cheap to do that required enough brain power to distract me from my broken heart. i hopped onto the nearest computer searched: knitting, how to. i followed step by step directions that were followed by pictures. who would have thought i would still be knitting and now selling my knitting ten years later!?!?

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