I had a beginners knitting lesson a couple of Monday's ago and a few of you have asked me about it so I wanted to mention it in more detail. It was a 4 hour lesson for "absolute beginners" and at the end of it you could take away 1 set of needles and 2 balls of wool in a lovely cloth bag. I arrived feeling rather nervous but I soon felt more comfortable after a cup of tea and meeting the other people on the course.
There were 5 of us altogether and we were soon on our way; we learnt how to cast on, how to do a knit stitch and a purl stitch. I was surprised to see that 3 of the other students had all knitted before and were much quicker than me and another girl of a similar age to me. I had expected everyone to be complete beginners so it was a bit of a surprise and panicked me a little bit.
My fellow beginner and I were quite far behind on the first task which was to knit 10 rows. We changed colours and knitted another 10 rows to produce a square coaster (I managed to add extra rows by accident - not sure how! oops) and then we casted off and voila! Our first piece was created.
This is where it went downhill a little bit for me. I felt like we needed more practice at casting on and the basics because by the time I had finished my coaster I had forgotten how to cast on and I had to ask again at the end of the class.
We moved on to increasing and decreasing stitches to create some bunting and I found it so difficult. I was a little bit slower than everyone else on the first task and the teacher moved on to the next stage leaving me behind and needing to catch up. I felt like I was back at school! Eventually I made it out alive with my bunting and my coaster, and still feeling like a complete beginner. Jonathan now proudly displays the coaster on his desk at work and the bunting will never see the light of day again.
Overall it was a good experience but I would have changed the following:-
- the teacher should have worked to absolute beginner level instead of keeping to the pace of the more experienced knitters because the course is advertised for "absolute beginners".
- there should have been more time spent practising the basics and then finishing off with a few fancier moves.
I have really caught the knitting bug after a bit of help from my Mum and a really good knitting book, and I'll keep practising. Practice makes perfect!
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