I credit my mom with teaching me to knit, but she doesn't see it that way. You see, she's a righty and I'm a lefty, and I couldn't reverse what she was showing me. This was the 70's, mind you. No internet, no cable TV. So what does a smart mother do? She bought a book.

My mom found a left handed store somehow, and bought knitting and crochet guides that had lefty instructions on one side and righty on the other. It was perfect. Once I had the basics, she could guide me with the finer points. As I see it, she found me the right tools and gave the right support, so I give the credit to her.

Learning to knit was great for my relationship with my mom. The two of us talked yarn, patterns, and even tried us alternating knit rows so we didn't have to purl (it didn't work). I also sewed up a few of her UFOs, as she doesn't like to sew. I stopped knitting when I started college, but a few years after I graduated I picked it up again. We still talk knitting, but now I'm the one bringing new techniques and tools to the conversation.

So now I have my own daughter who wants to know how to knit, and she's a righty. (Just my luck the lefty child isn't interested.) It's too bad my mom is too far away to teach her. I'm pretty good at training, and as I've been reversing things my whole life I'm pretty good at that too. So I figured I'd try it. The lesson went something like this :

Me: "So you hold the yarn like this - wait... I hold it like ... so reversed it's ... - OK, like this."

Daughter: "Like this?"

Me: "Yeah, I think that's right. OK, so you insert the needle here and hook the yarn here ..."

Daughter: "... but it's not looping."

Me: "I use my fingers to help the loop stay, like this. Watch me.... Now you try.... No, keep the finger with the yarn straight. You need to use the other hand."

Daughter: "But this is the finger you used. This isn't making sense mommy."

Me: "Ugh. This isn't working. OK, new plan. We'll do what Grandma did. I'll buy you a book tomorrow."

My mother was right, as usual, and now she's managed to teach two generations how to knit. (She won't agree with that either.) The book I got was able to teach her the hand positions and motions, and I was able to help her with casting on. Now when I'm knitting, she'll get her knitting too and keep me company. I'm looking forward to many years of keeping the conversation going.

As a side note, a week or so back I tried knitting righty to create a swatch for a demo, and I discovered a few things. First, I will never be able to hold the yarn in my left hand, so when I knit righty I need to use the English style*. Too many years of muscle memory knitting Continental style. My left fingers want to hold the yarn onto the needle, and my right fingers want to stick out straight wrapped in yarn. So throwing the swatch it was.

Knitting righty went OK until I tried to slip-slip-knit. The slant was weird, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I set it aside and tried to breakdown what I did normally, and I made my second discovery: I always wrap the yarn clockwise around the needle tip, whether I'm knitting or purling (how cool is that?). Apparently with the new knitting style and new hand, I was wrapping clockwise with knits and counter-clockwise with purls. Once I made sure it was counter-clockwise always (reversed for right-handed), everything lined up.

Have you encountered a learning or teaching problem because of being a lefty? I'd like to hear your story, so post it here.

* For those who don't know or forget which is which, English style has the yarn and the just-worked stiches in the same hand and the yarn gets thrown onto the needle. Continental style has the just-worked stiches in one hand and the yarn in the other, and the yarn is picked with the working needle.