Lefties Unite!

[Sylvia Lee]

Who else here crochets left-handed?

 

And, have you ever found it difficult to learn from or to teach someone who crochets with the opposite hand from you?

[smokeyp81]

I'm a leftie! I do everything with my left hand except cut with scissors (weird huh?). I have tried to teach friends how to crochet and it has not worked out too well. I learned to crochet from a leftie, so that was good. I learned to knit from a rightie. She had a hard time showing me, but I find that us lefties adapt pretty well at switching instructions in our head cuz we have to do it all the time in everyday life.

 

Lefties rule!!!

[crochetingfool]

I'm a lefty!

 

I don't have a problem teaching right handed people. I have them sit in front of me.

 

Linda

to my husband.

http://photos.yahoo.com/yetieddy

[Sylvia Lee]

I learned to knit from a rightie. She had a hard time showing me,...

 

Hmm. I learned to knit from a friend's mom, and she told me that you always knit the same whether you're right- or left-handed. Maybe she was just nervous about teaching a lefty...Well, it doesn't matter 'cause I can't remember how to cast on now, so the lesson was fruitless anyway.

 

My younger sister is a lefty like me, but when my grandma taught _her_ to crochet she forgot and taught my sister to do it right-handed. So now, even though my sister can't remember how to do anything except a simple chain, she insists on learning right-handed. I tried teaching her over the summer but gave up. It was funny to watch her crochet, though, because she was moving the yarn and everything with her left hand and just holding the hook with her right and I kept trying to convince her that she would have an easier time if she switched hands, but she wouldn't do it.

[Alosha]

I'm a lefty. Grandma tried to teach me when I was a kid, but I just couldn't get it. I finally taught myself a few years later. I have taught several right handed people easily enough.

Alosha

[jpr54_]

i am a true left hand knitter aka a backwards knitter

but i crochet with my right hand

 

it has been almost impossible to find an individual in northern new jersey to help me-

i have read books and viewed videos but i would also like to meet a live true left hand knitter

[13bodies]

I'm a leftie! I do everything with my left hand except cut with scissors (weird huh?).

 

Me too! I kept losing my left-handed scissors when I was a kid so Mom finally refused to buy any more. I think that was a bad decision on her part because then I started using her scissors.

 

I learned to crochet from a righty, but I'm good at reversing things; besides, it was a very short lesson--sc, hdc, dc. Took 5 minutes. Everything else I learned from books. I've never tried to teach anyone, though my brother mentioned a passing interest so I'll jump on him over Christmas.

 

Lefties rule!!!

But of course!

[DainaJ]

If you crochet "left-handed," does that mean you hold the hook in your left hand and yarn in your right hand? I (right-handed) am wondering how to teach my daughters, who are both left-handed, how to crochet.

 

I can somewhat understand the switching back and forth - I knit using the Combination method (similar to Continental) with the yarn in my left hand. At my beginner level, I can read instructions, but watching a knitting show where they are knitting English/US style confuses me to no end! Everything is the opposite and I have trouble following.

[lyrakristine]

I'm left-handed. I do everything with my left hand: write, eat, cut with scissors, draw, crochet etc. My grandmama taught me to crochet initially, then I pretty much taught myself to do it. I used to use a mirror for illustrated instructions then I learned to "see" it backwards. Same goes with crochet diagrams.

[Stacey]

If you crochet "left-handed," does that mean you hold the hook in your left hand and yarn in your right hand? I (right-handed) am wondering how to teach my daughters, who are both left-handed, how to crochet.

Yep, the hook goes in the left hand and yarn in the right, basically a mirror image of a right-handed crocheter.

 

I did have trouble learning from my mom as a kid, but I'm not sure how much of that was my being a leftie and her being a rightie and how much was my lack of patience at age 9

 

When I did eventuall learn, I didn't have much trouble learning out of books. I started out using a leaflet that had left-handed illustrations, but it wasn't long before I was able to use look at right-handed ones and just mentally reverse things...

 

I could never use those lefty scissors! It always looked like someone chewed the paper up I think it's because I learned with regular scissors.

 

I do a fair number of things right-handed, but the major things--writing, crochet, eating--I do with my left hand.

[sunshine1977]

I am a crochet leftie who learned from a rightie (my cousin) by sitting opposite her and watching...Weird thing is, though, I knit righthanded!! Basically the yarn is in the same hand for me both knitting and crocheting!

 

Laurie:hook

[luckygrrl]

I am a lefty!! Buuuut... I actually crochet right-handed. I taught myself, and the booklet had instructions for both, but somehow right-handed seemed to feel better to me! I don't hold my hook like a pencil, though, because that would truly feel strange, holding something in my right hand like a pencil.

[brenmichelle20]

And I have taught left and right handed people. And I design to where I don't have to have left and right directions..My home growing up, mom was a lefty, 1 sister and brother lefties, and I was, and now in my home I have a righty and a lefty, but the youngest who is a lefty, can write with his right as well but prefers left. He cuts using his right hand and plays ball as a righty... Just like my brother did...

[Red883]

I'm also a true leftie.

Learned to crochet sitting mirror image. Works for me as I absolutely cannot reteach myself to use my right hand for crochet or anything else. Lead with the left...

I only have trouble with certain patterns...not really trouble...but I have to THINK about what I'm doing with more intricate patterns when you have to start on the right versus the left for a certain piece. Doesn't happen often but I have screwed up that way...

I also am under the assumption that it doesn't matter being right or left handed when it comes to knitting. I've tried knitting more than once but I don't care for it as much as I do crocheting.

[zeropixie]

I havent had a problem teaching anyone and for the most part it hasn't been a problem following a pattern. I did noticed though that if I'm working on a design that is in the round like spirals they will go in the opposite direction then the pattern calls for. I never noticed this until recently when I relized that my hat didn't match the picture.

[pinknightmare]

i am alllll lefty here. anyone else have the problem with confusing their right and left???? i am always giving backwards directions to people, or using them backwards.

[jacqui]

I'm a righty and ive taught a lot of lefties with no problem. They either sit directly in front of me when i'm showing them or we have used the mirror technique where they sit beside you and you watch through a mirror. It depends on the person which way suits them. The latest lefty ive taught is my neighbour and she is halfway to making herself a Kilarney cloak. She says i'm the only person who has never made her feel bad or awkward about being a lefty. Why should i my son's a lefty to. Lol.

[Eugenie]

I am a lefty and a new crocheter. I have found working patterns backwards can be confusing at this stage. Especially when you have a situation where you have to count out spaces and stitches and then it says to crochet "to the end" of the row but does not specify how many stitches.

[Plo0t]

I'm a complete and utter leftie. My right hand is basically there for decoration purposes only. I can't even play baseball because I throw and catch with the same hand!

 

I've only tried teaching one person so far, but she was a leftie also, so it wasn't all that difficult. I learned from a rightie though. And THAT was a challenge. I sat in front of her and tried to mirror her movements, but after a few months, I came to realize that I was doing mostly everything wrong. lol.

[poemfish]

I was taught to crochet by a counselor at school when I was 10. She never asked if we were right or left handed. She just taught everyone right handed and I didn't know any better So, now I am 43 years old and crochet at lightning speed right handed.

 

I recently had to learn how to crochet LEFT handed because I was learning how to do Tapestry Crochet. When you are working in rounds it doesn't matter but if you are working in rows you have to crochet left handed every other row! It feels so WEIRD!!!!

 

michele

[Katchkan]

I am a leftie also, My great aunt taught me to crochet, after I begged enough, no on took the tomboy seroiusly. I have taught my husband to crochet so he could teach my right handed daughter. It was kinder to the kid to do it that way. I taught the leftie.

I can do a lot of things with my right hand but crocheting is not one of them. I have no problems with patterns. One way patterns need to be thought out but no real problem. Since I design I have to be careful to write where both a right and left handed person can understand my patterns. But on the whole there really isn't that much difference.

[Valerie77]

im lefthanded...but i crochet righty. its probably the only thing i really do with my right hand. my grandma taught me to crochet when i was really young and she said straight up there was no way she could figure out how to teach me lefty!!! and so i still do it this way...but it feels natural, and its nice to have my left hand skillfully manipulating yarn for my hook

[Dejhia]

I'm a lefty.... The only thing I do right handed is a right handed mouse... Mainly 'cuase I used to use my dad's computer and it was all right handed... Besides, left handed mouses just confuse everyone....

 

I am very luckly. My mom and grandma are lefties so I was taught ot knit and crochet left handed....(In fact, my mom taugh a few of my left handed friends to knit left handed becuase they were having a hard time learning from a rightly). Though, when I started to reteach myself after several years away from it, I only hand right handed instructions.. But, that whole mirror immage thing is so implanted in my brain I was able to do it left handed...

 

I did have a little bit of problem teaching the first right handed person I taught to crochet... She had a hard time watching me (as I faced her) and doing waht I did (miror immage).... She wanted me to sit next to her and work... Though, it could also be that we were having lessions durring lunch break at work and given my old work schedule it was several weeks inbetween lessions..... After that, I havn't had aproblem teaching a right handed person.... THough, I always made sure that lessions weren't that far apart, if I could help it.

[coffeeandcrochet]

I'm a leftie, but as another person posted I use scissors with my right hand, and I thought I was the only one. My DM taught me to crochet she was right handed, not sure why I ended up a leftie, but my sis is too. When I want to learn a new stitch (like lately the afghan stitch tunisian, knit and purl stitch tunisian) a website had a video of how to do it. I went and got a mirror and popped it in front of the computer and watched through the mirror it was so much easier.

 

coffeeandcrochet

[luvtocraft]

::raises left hand:: I do, I do!!

 

Oh and check it out, this guy has his hook in his left hand! Cool!!

 

As far as teaching a rightie, I've learned to crochet with my right hand for this purpose. I crochet painfully slow with my right hand, but for showing someone how to crochet, it works.