I learned to knit and crochet at the same time — crocheting was something I could do easily but knitting? It was awkward and never really worked. I’ve always suspected I was just doing something wrong — if only someone who knew what they were doing could spot it. I even managed to teach a friend of mine to knit, and she couldn’t show me what I was doing wrong.

I got Anya a knitting book — it wasn’t quite enough for her to figure out knitting, so I let her find a few videos on YouTube. She has gotten to where she knits quite well. At first, she was using pencils — but I got her some knitting needles with little cats on the top. And she decided to teach me how to knit. Casting on — check. Knitting — not a check. It’s this strange awkward motion and the yarn ends up way too tight on the needle. So she sat and watched what I was doing — corrected the couple of things I was doing wrong, and …

I am actually able to knit now (yes, there are a few mistakes … but the tension is reasonable and it’s reasonable looking).