Don't Say "I Can't"

We hear it often.  Or we say it often.  "I can't teach."  It is akin to uttering all manner of defeatist thinking whilst knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, tatting, or the like.    Spewing out the can't word repeatedly is like living in the land of Devil's Advocate.  Let's move on over to the land of asset based thinking and focus on the word CAN.

I can teach others about knitting.  And so can all my yarn loving friends.  One thing I love about participating in a TKGA local guild is being encouraged to participate as both student and as teacher.  This week it was my turn to teach in a year long activity of my local guild.  (I would put in a link to the Riverside Knitting Guild, but our website is offline undergoing a total overhaul, so right now is not a good time to click over. )

Each month, a member is teaching a new stitch.  Perhaps I've told you all about this in a prior post.  And it was finally my opportunity.  I chose to teach Supple Rib.  All manner of descriptions exist so Google away. 

Or just follow along with the way that I taught the stitching.

Working with a multiple of 3 stitches:

R1 - K1, K the next stitch but leave it on the needle, p2tog

R 2 - Purl across

To be fair, I have seen this worked without the plain K1 so that it becomes simply the knit 1 and leave on needle, p2tog.  Knitters choice and please do what pleases you and the look your want to achieve.

What I find odd, is that the simple step of knitting a stitch, but leaving it on the needle to work the p2tog causes confusion.   If you have ever  knit one front and back (k1fb) then you know the drill.  Knit and get that loop over to the right needle, then do something with the loop still on the left needle before dropping it off.  Supple Rib is the same concept - you already know how it works.  Instead of knitting into the back of the loop still on the left needle, move the yarn into the purl position and insert the right needle into two stitches (the one you did not slip off and the next stitch) and purl them together.  

That's it!  That is all that is required to learn the Supple Rib.  And I just taught you.  Wow.  I CAN teach.   And I have every confidence that you can teach this to someone else.   Get out there and teach and learn.