There’s a downside to learning to knit from videos – you won’t always know if you’re making mistakes. That’s where attending a class or a knitting circle can be super valuable. I attended a knitting circle about 2 weeks into my knitting adventure.
To begin my knitting journey, I had begun a wall of stockinette stitch out of a skein of yarn I had purchased at my LYS. I had high hopes that this work-in-progress would eventually become a scarf. It wasn’t looking good. Also, I wasn’t enjoying the process – at all.
Problem was, I was knitting through the back loop on the right side of the work (oops). My stitches felt tight. I was starting to think that maybe…just maybe…knitting was more stressful than I had bargained for. It was a hand workout just to get each row done! I started to wonder if those who told me how relaxing knitting was were actually punking me.
My intro to the knitting circle
Nevertheless, I really wanted to learn to knit, so I decided to attend the knitting circle. I’m so glad I did!
The teacher welcomed me into the group and asked what I was working on. I sheepishly pulled my ball of yarn and strip of stitches from my reusable shopping bag. Looking around, I watched others pull elaborate shawls, sweaters, and socks from their project bags. I had some serious project envy, but I couldn’t let that stop me.
I explained how hard knitting was because of the tightness on my needles, so she watched me knit a row. She saw right away what was causing my needless hand strain. That’s when I learned a pretty cool trick that works for teaching kids to knit (and apparently women too). She showed me how the stitches on my needle looked like legs. Next, she told me to imagine the legs were those of a cowboy on his horse. Then, she told me to knit into the front leg. Apparently, I had been knitting into the back leg this entire time. Knit into the front leg, and all would be fine. Just like that, I was off and running.
In an instant my overly tight fabric loosened up. I got into my groove, and I started to enjoy the process of knitting again. I’ve never looked back since.
Oh, and I also started learning how to read a pattern, because I realized that no amount of unstructured stockinette stitch was going to turn into anything even remotely wearable.
See you on the next row!
