A Post about Knitting

Wednesday night at church, one of the GA leaders came up to me and asked me if a particular young lady had found me yet.  I said "No," and was wondering why this child would be looking for me in the first place.  "She came in asking if anyone knew how to knit because she needed to learn how and we all said no, but we know someone who does!"

How often does the opportunity to pass on something that you love to do come knocking on your door?  After the 2nd person told me the same story, I managed to track down the novice knitter.  She knew how to cast on but didn't know what to do to turn it around and knit back across.  Our families were both ready to head home, so I told her I'd show her as soon as I could.

Sunday morning she and I were both there early.  I had brought some yarn and needles from my office (yes, I have some spare knitting supplies stashed in my office - that's another story) just in case she didn't have hers with her.  I underestimated the determination of this child.  She opened her purse and pulled out a small ball of pink yarn and 2 needles.  The needles were not of the same color and this concerned me momentarily.  Usually needle pairs are color coded for size.  But I realized at this stage, it probably didn't matter that much.  I was also concerned that there was nothing already cast onto either needle.  I remember how much trouble I had with casting on when I was first learning.  I thought we wouldn't have time to get past what I  thought was the hardest part.

She surprised me by saying that casting on was not a problem and promptly cast on about 10 stitches in as many seconds!  Wow!  I was impressed.  And she realized that this was a learning process and was not attempting to make something permanent from that little pink ball of yarn.  She said, "This should be enough to learn how, right?"  Right she was!  I stood behind her, took her hands in mine and guided her through the steps.

With the working yarn at the back, stick the right needle into the first stitch on the left needle from front to back, wrap the yarn around the right needle, then pull it through.  Now slip it off the left onto the right.

Now do it again.

Now do it again.

We were doing pretty well until the slick metal needle slipped out of all the stitches and hit the table.  I told her not to worry.  That had happened to me quite often as I was learning how.  Luckily she hadn't gotten very far, so it would be easy to start over. 

That's when I realized that the 40 year difference in our ages had disappeared into nothing.  I was simply someone who was a bit more experienced at what she would like to be able to do.  I've been knitting for just 3 years or so.  Not very much farther along the learning curve than she. 

How exciting!!