How to Teach a Left-Handed Person to Knit
Knitting is a fun and satisfying hobby, and is useful for making presents and decorative items like afghans for the house. If you're
right-handed, it's easy to learn from another right-handed person. But what does a left-hander do? Here's the answer
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Two sets of size 10 or 11 aluminum knitting needles
- Two skeins of 4-ply worsted weight (ordinary) yarn in a contrasting color from the needles
- A mirror that will fit across the teacher's lap, about 18 by 12 inches
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1
Place the mirror across the teacher's lap, tucked under his arms. His hands and needles and yarn should be right in front of the mirror, about 8 to 10 inches away.
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2
The left-handed student sits across from the teacher, with a clear view of the mirror.
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3
The teacher then demonstrates all the stitches, starting with casting on, then knitting and purling, and progressing to increasing and decreasing.
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4
The student should never look at the teacher's hands. Look only at the mirror, where it will appear that a left-handed person is knitting. The student only needs to do exactly what she sees in the mirror.
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Comments
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Patricia Resnick
Sep 12, 2008
Thank you for this, an excellent comment! -
foxycrafters
Sep 10, 2008
If you teach students to knit in this way they will not be able to follow written patterns. Instead, left-handed people should learn the "Continental Method" of knitting. It involves the left hand more than the right and they will be able to follow patterns in the future. (I found this out the hard way...I taught students by sitting across from them, manipulating their hands as needed and then discovered they could knit, but could not use patterns.) Thanks for reading.
