Knitting Lessons

My friend, Misa, visited this week from Japan.  She brought with her many special Japanese gifts, including two great knitting books.  The garments included in these books are very inspirational, especially the garment shaping and stitch patterns that are used.  I know that I will take advantage of many of these features in my own design process.

During her trip, we set aside some time for a knitting lesson.  Teaching Misa how to knit was great fun!  She was a very quick study, and within an hour she was knitting and purling!  At the end of her stay she was still excited about knitting (this is always a good sign), so I sent her home with the swatch that she had been creating on a circular needle.



Teaching Misa to knit reminded me of my experiences in high school math class (have I mentioned that I love math?). Mr Wallace, our math teacher, loved to assign story-problem worksheets that were written in French.  When we would groan about how difficult it was to solve math problems in another language, he would say, "math is the same in every language."  I now feel that the same can be said for knitting.  With Misa, our lesson mostly involved practicing the movements of the knit and purl stitches, and studying the fabric that resulted from using these stitches independently or in tandem.  With this understanding (and without much knowledge of the English terminology for these maneuvers), she began to create a scarf-like swatch that included alternating bands of garter stitch and stockinette stitch. I am in awe of how quickly she caught on, and I think that she is going to be an excellent knitter!