kitewithfish | Welp, here goes - how to teach people stuff

Welp, here goes - how to teach people stuff

I volunteered to give a couple of my co workers a basic "intro to knitting" lesson today over lunch and help establish a group hang out with crafters who nibble at lunch once a week. So I have some plans and some hopes and also some concerns!

Have you ever taught someone something? were you super prepared about it beforehand or just relying on your own expertise to carry you thru?

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I've taught a number of people how to crochet. One time I prepared printed instructions, which I ended up having to ditch because no one was using them, but all the other times I just sat next to the person and let them watch my hands and watched them when they were having a go themselves. Maybe bring yarn and needles if the other person doesn't have any, or if they wouldn't know how to get yarn and needles that went together gauge-wise, but other than that I think you just need to trust yourself.

I did have some supplies to share (this counts as stash busting, right? Right!) and it went pretty well! I basically started with slip knots, a simple cast on, and knit stitches. One person, who it turns out is sometimes left handed, had some more trouble, but all in all it seemed to go okay! Everyone seemed happy and thanked me for being able to break things down into smaller steps.

That said, I would definitely set up the table so that the people doing a lesson had a better view of my hands and I would see theirs more easily.

Yay, I'm glad it went well!

A friend and I ended up starting a knitting club where we used to work, and I taught a few people to knit. We weren't very well prepared. I've taught more people to knit since.

The one thing I definitely do differently now is teach people to knit with cotton yarn not wool. You can see what you're doing better and unpick easier. Also, if you knit smallish squares, they're finishable quickly and are either facecloths or dishcloths depending on whether you use nicer knitting cotton or cheap craft cotton.

They're actually pretty good facecloths to use with face/body scrubs as the loose knit means the pumice/ground nutshell/sea salt or whatever particles will rinse straight out. I now knit them specifically for myself.

I ended up using acrylic because I had lots of it leftover from my early 'learning to knit' stage - I only learned myself how to do this about two years ago. I think things went pretty ok, and I let people take stuff so that they could practice at home. We'll see how things go.

... good luck!! :)

Thanks! I think it went okay - learning experience for all of us!

I've taught people to knit informally in the course of a yarn bombing project. One thing that I found was very individual is which learners felt more assured with straight vs circular needles. For full novices, I offered them each to hold and then they chose which felt more secure and easy to manipulate. That seemed to reduce the confusion and insecurity once yarn was added. Which is best kept to the larger sizes, worsted being, I feel, best because it's large enough to grasp without being unwieldy, and if knit on a slightly-too-large gauge needle, easy to see mistakes in.

One thing that I learned from teaching was that new knitters often want to get a death grip on the yarn and tie their fingers up in knots trying to tension the yarn. I learnt many years ago from some writing by Elizabeth Zimmerman to let go of my tensioning and just direct the yarn with my yarn-holding hand, relying upon the needles to impart needed size to my stitches. By encouraging new knitters to ease up, I think that they fight their knitting a lot less and drop fewer stitches while struggling to get a needle into them. Even if it's sloppy-loose, that's more helpful for learning the moves and they will find their own tension with time.

Beyond that, I think that knitting is fairly easy to convey because there are few set initial skills (CO, knit, purl) and then it's practice, which permits more individualized help in the form of troubleshooting. So really, it was a fairly organic process of letting the ultimate skill, knitting, as well as the comfort of the student guide the process rather than trying to shape the content beforehand.

That's pretty much in contrast to more formal instructing I've done, that did take the kind of prep you're contrasting.

You know, I think you're right - in the end it was only two people (another two had threatened to come) and there was a good deal of yarn strangulation going on. I ended up doing exactly that - teaching a cast on, teaching knitting, and then correcting and helping folks just hold the yarn and turn their work. We didn't even get to purling XD - Maybe next week!

You'll likely encounter different learning styles. Some people will do just fine with written or verbal instructions. Others will need to do the thing to understand. You might have to sit beside some people and talk them through the movements, or 'hand over hand' with them until they memorise the action of knitting. Some people will do better with big, chunky needles and yarn, others will do better with smaller. Some people will struggle to co ordinate movements that need both hands. Just try and see what people are struggling with and tailor your help accordingly. Some people actually learn better from videos that they can stop, start and rewind as needed. Knitting Help is great for this, it has great, free instructional videos that are good quality but not massive.

Also, even if you're learning, sometimes it's disheartening to just make things for practice. Choose a project like a garter stitch scarf, dishcloth, or potholder that is super basic but gives an actual, practical article at the end.

Absolutely - There was one person who did best when I physically put her hands in the right positions, and there was one who just wanted to see it and figure it out on her own. I'm a video person myself - I get caught up in paying attention to the teacher's mood - being able to rewind works much better for me.

I sort of threw myself into making things the first time around - my first project was a garter stitch in the round hat, and I hadn't really made anything at all before that except a swatch or two to learn the stitches. I think dishclothes are a good idea! But I actually don't recommend projects that go beyond one skein for new knitters because I think people burn out and get bored. All the practice and the muscle memory is good, but I think people periodically need to be able to declare victory. And, if you had bad luck and picked out yarn or needles that are not great for you, after one skein you can change it up and see if there's something better out there.

I wasn't suggesting beyond one skein - you can make a garter stitch scarf with 12mm needles and 8ply yarn in an hour or so, even if you're a slow knitter. It's loose and loopy naturally, so it's a great project for someone still working out their tension.

Oh, that does sound like a good first project! I am mostly speaking from my own bias - I started a scarf early on that took me months to finish because I just ran out of steam and it got bad knitting vibes all over it.

I've taught drop-spindle spinning, and other than having the materials at hand there's not really a lot you can do to teach that without just demonstrating and then letting people try. I guess with knitting you might have a list of helpful youtube videos and other information to hand out too.

yeah, basically - eventually, they just have to work until the knowledge is just in them. I didn't do hand outs, but I did send some links to videos that showed what we had been doing!

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Welp, here goes - how to teach people stuff

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