To knit or not to knit!

I am left handed and so were my mum and sister. I knit right handed. And have successfully taught my granddaughter.
I iron lefthandedly and so do my right handed son, daughter and husband as that was the way I set up the ironing board.
The advice on sitting the child between your knees is probably the best, but as long as they can knit an acceptable square to begin with it does not matter how. It's the sense of achievement that is important.

Just shown my 7yr old gd how to knit. She saw me doing some and asked how to do it. I happened to have some short chunky needles and found some thick wool. We spent the next couple of hours learning. I cast on 10 stiches and when she went home she had acquired two more! Didn't bother to correct her at this point as I didn't want to discourage her. According to my daughter she had done quite a bit the next day and now had even more stiches!! At least she stuck at it.

I am left handed and luckily it was my mother who was also left handed who taught me to knit. She produced wonderful cardigans but I lost interest.

I cannot sew for the life of me but it was a right handed teacher who taught me at school so I ended up threading a needle using my right hand. Now my eyesight is so bad I could not do that now!

I taught one daughter to knit but couldn't get it across to the elder one who is left handed. Recently my 22 year old granddaughter asked me to teach her. We started with 20 stitches and garter stitch. After a couple of hours she thought she'd got it and went home. A week later she was back with a piece of knitting full of holes and now with 37 stitches! Amid much giggling we tried again but so far she's still trying to get it right.

DS1 knitted a red and blue stripey scarf for his teddy when he was around 5, but nothing more since.

Narrowboatnan.... as the mother of sons, that really made me laugh out loud, but I bet your son could conjure it up again if he wanted to, and you reminded him of that.

I taught my DS to knit when he was about 5. I can still picture him now concentrating hard on his work and muttering "stab it, strangle it, throw it away!" He's 35 now and can't remember how to do it

I managed to knit when I was 6 yrs old. I am still miffed that no one even thought there was a left handed way and so I was just taught the right handed way.
I was in my late 20s when someone asked me to teach a left handed child and I realised there was a different way! It is too late for me to change.
It does explain why I can't flick the wool over the needle. However I feel better when I was told last week that the world's fastest knitter takes her hand off the needle,to put the wool around, like me.

I think 6 is a little young but I don't think I could have been much older than that when I learnt. I remember as a right-handed 8 year old I taught a left-handed friend how to knit left-handed!

I tried to teach DGS to knit a simple scarf for his soft toy, but he got bored after a few rows (he was doing really well!) and ran off outside to ride his bike!

I was rapped over the knuckles with a ruler too, but by the headmistress at my primary school, not a nun.

However, we did learn to sew and embroider at primary school!

I was convent educated as well, and have never really recovered! So hard and unsympathetic all those nuns. I don't think they like children.

I too tried to teach my granddaughter, aged 5, to knit at Christmas, but I think she was a little young. We kept changing the colours making a scarf. I never thought to put her between my knees, but will do this when she next visit in the summer (They live in Dubai). I ended up teaching her mother instead!

Thank you, it's been lovely reading all your reminiscences of learning/teaching the art of knitting. I'm sorry Maywalk that your memories were tainted by the not so merciful Sisters. I too was Convent educated so I know what you mean!

I think I'll take your advice, Jalima, and knit penguin myself and show GD how to make a scarf.

I could knit at the age of 5, my daughter and son from 6. When my husband saw us all knitting he decided to have a go. The first thing he knitted was a layette for his sisters baby. He knitted all his pullovers and socks.

I tried the French knitting with my elder DGD when she was about six and it didn't work. I think she was too impatient even though I gave her a six inch start. Later we tried knitting with proper needles and bright double knit wool. She was better at that but soon lost interest when she kept making mistakes. When my youngest GD was three she asked me to teach her to knit, so we started on real knitting with her between my knees. That worked quite well. I don't think she's done any since but I'll have another go with her now I've been reminded. I did also try to teach my DD when she was young but that didn't go very well although she says she can knit now. I do think we should at least try to pass on skills such as knitting, crochet and sewing to our GC, both girls and boys, because otherwise they will be completely lost. Some primary schools ask grandparents to go in and teach small groups to knit and that seems a very good idea.

I am a cack handed knitter, in a family who generally knit quite well. I have never let it stop me and have a long list of dolls clothes to my credit.

However last year DGD pushed me to my limit. Please could she have a Katy Morag sweater for World Book Day. Swallowing hard I agreed - and I did it. To my eyes the knitting is not at all even but DGD thinks its wonderful and that is all that really matters.

I have been teaching her to knit and she can do it, but prefers sewing.

One idea might be to get a French knitting kit. As a child we used a wooden cotton reel with four tacks in the top, but you can get them in kit for these days. We called it cork work, but I'm not sure what they are called nowadays. Keep the penguin kit for when she is a little older.
It is definitely a skill well worth learning.

I read that knitting was started by fisher*men*.

Apparently knitting patterns is equivalent to coding so a good idea to teach all children but, just like any other skill, some will find it easy and some hard.

When helping out at school I was asked to teach little boys how to knit. They were about 7, We made sweat bands for the wrist. About ten stitches, thick wool and big needles. These boys thought it was great, and very proud when showing off their own made sweat bands.

Worth a try

We were friendly with an American Air Force family, and i was admiring a lovely fairisle sweater one of his children was wearing. "Did your mom make it?" I asked. "No", he replied, "my dad did. Mom can't knit." Dad had been knitting since the age of six, taught by his granny.

I was taught to knit in the "Sisters of Mercy" home when I was five although I could hardly see what I was knitting due to having my good eye covered up.
In 1935 they thought that the best thing to do to help the bad eye get working but it never worked out that way it did nothing for me.
God help me or anyother inmate if any wrong stitches were found because the so called "Sisters of Mercy" were certainly NOT merciful and would rap the child with gusto across the knuckles with a ruler to MAKE them understand.

NO I definitely do NOT recommend that sort of teaching.
Have the child standing between your knees and both you and the child have knitting pins and some yarn, it helps if the child can SEE it from the angle that the garment is being made, from the casting on to the beginning of the said item which in my opinion would be a dollies scarf done in garter stitch to start off with, with about 16 sts casted on. Not every child likes knitting so if this is the case dont force the bairn to learn.

As you may have worked out I will be 86 this year and when at school during WW2 all the children including the boys had a session each day of knitting balaclavas for the troops on 4 needles. Many of them liked to do it because we felt important to help with the war effort and were doing our bit.

PS don't use the horrid plastic needles in that type of kit. get her some good circular needles - you can go back and forth on circular needles - I only use them these days and the weight of the knitting doesn't pull at my [now weak] wrists.

Aged 18 and a Brownie leader, I successfully taught a little girl to knit left-handed. What i did was to put her opposite me, so she followed what i did in, a mirror so to speak.

I don't think 6 is too young, if she has the concentration and staying power. If she does get bored, just put it to one side and try again later.
Good luck

I tried to teach my grandson (8) to cast a fly line. When he'd finished, it looked like knitting!! Took me an age to untangle it. I tried to teach DD to knit when she was about ten but she never quite got it, so we gave up. I asked her recently whether she'd like to learn again. She gave me a look!