Lefties Unite!

[AmyG.]

I'm a leftie at heart, but growing up I was always taught to do things with my right hand because the majority of people around me are right handed. I've tried to change to crocheting leftie, but for some reason I just can't get the hang of it.

[DainaJ]

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.

 

I taught myself to write left-handed for the fun of it when I was a kid, so I guess I could teach myself to crochet left-handed so I can teach crochet to my left-handed daughters! (By the way, is this a genetic trait? My DH and I each have one left-handed grandparent, but no other lefties in the family and now have 2 kids who are lefties. Interesting!)

 

About knitting, and actually crochet - I don't know what makes the difference in handed-ness, which hand you hold the hook/needle in, or which hand you hold the yarn in. I crochet with yarn in left and hook in right, and knit with yarn in left working with right needle. It seems really awkward to me to try to knit holding the yarn in my right, even though I'm a rightie.

 

Anyway, interesting discussion!!

[sjkmaurice]

I'm very interested in this discussion, too. I have a three year old left-handed daughter who loves to pretend to crochet while I'm doing it. Actually, she "makes spaghetti" with the yarn and uses my K-hook as a fork, but I'm sure she'll be crocheting in no time. Anyway, I'll have to pay attention to which hand she prefers to hold the hook in and teach her that way. And now I know to face her if she needs to be taught left-handed. Thanks all you lefties!

[JCB]

I am a total leftie... I'm totally uncoordinated with my right hand. I can't even control a mouse with my right hand. But I have always left the mouse 'left click/right click' as they were because I knew I'd be in trouble if I changed it on my computer and then went to use one at work or anyplace else.

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.

 

That same sort of thing happened to me. I took a class to learn bead crochet, and about half way through realized my beads were spiraling opposite of everyone else's!

 

I've never taught crochet, but when I've taught another skill, I had all the lefties sit across from me, and the righties along side of me. Worked out well.

 

Joan

 

[dixieredhead]

I'm a lefty, the last one in my family. Except I do everything with my right hand except write. I hold my hook like a pencil, in my right hand.

[Gran]

I taught myself to crochet. It took a while to find a book with good diagrams for left-handed folks and that had big, legible print, and that was well written, and that included all the things one needs to know.

 

As a child, I tried to learn to knit from someone right-handed. I just couldn't translate what she was showing me to my own way of learning.

 

When I was younger I found I would try to do things the way right-handers do them and was often a bit confused in myself. After several decades of being left-handed, I noticed that my left-sidedness is very dominant.

 

I did learn sign language right-handed, just to balance out the left-sidedness.

 

I use scissors right-handed, as there were no left-handed scissors when I was a child.

 

Trying to do things mirror image to make it left-handed doesn't work for me as I automatically put myself in the position of that which is looking at me.

 

I don't bother with trying to learn from right-handers. I just do what seems most natural for me and leave the right-handers to themselves.

 

It would be nice to have a left-handed crochet guild, though!

[ranieannie]

I'm another "very" left-handed person who crochets and knits right-handed...Given no choice by the mom who taught me the rudiments of knitting and crocheting.

Boy, was that hard to learn! I'm kind of a klutz anyway, so getting coordinated with the "wrong" hand was tough. But after many years I'm fast, and my work is usually nice and even. I still look klutzy, though!

I promised my very-lefty SIL I'd teach her to crochet left-handed when she's ready. It can be done!

[Elle Marz]

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?

 

Haven't taught anyone, but my mother taught me and she was righthanded. I figure if she could do it, I'd be able to also, someday.

[renegade]

I'm a lefty and am basically self taught. When I was a teenager, my sister showed me the basics, but I just mirrored what she did.

 

The only thing I absolutely cannot do with my left hand is cut with scissors. I've tried, and actually hurt myself! When I was in elementary school, they didn't have left-handed scissors, so I had to learn to cut right handed.

[moonspinners]

yeppers, I'm a true lefty too. My mom taught me the basics and she's a righty, but now that I think about it her way of teaching was unusual (at least to me). We sat side by side on the sofa and she would crochet a few stitches right-handed just to be sure she was doing it correctly, then she would frog it and do it left-handed so I could mimic her. Beyond the basic stitches, I'm self-taught.

[sunshine1977]

Very interesting discussion! I never realized there was that big a difference in left-handed and right-handed sissors other than the way the handles are shaped! I have always cut left handed with sissors, and never gave a thought to doing it right handed or that it didn't come out right with right-handed sissors! I got my first pair of "good" left-handed sissors when I took a tailoring class in college, and the only difference I ever noticed was that it was definitely more comfortable, especially when cutting out a pattern with lots of pieces or thicker cloth. Other than that, I didn't notice that the left-handed sissors did any better job of cutting than the right-handed ones!

 

I have always noticed that I have more STRENGTH in my right hand and arm, but more coordination in my left hand...I bowl and throw right handed, but bat and golf left handed...Really strange!

 

Laurie:hook