Any hints for teaching eager left handed 6 yr old daughter?

[alipurr]

I am hoping some of you have had some experience teaching a child who is left handed to crochet, and can give me some hints. My daughter, who is 6, has been bugging me for a couple of years to start. For a while, I would just hold her on my lap and let her hold the hook and loop the yarn and pull it through as I guided it and held the tension in the yarn. I would do this til she got tired of it. But we were doing this right handed. I showed her how to hold her yarn and make a chain left handed a couple of days ago, and she is taking off like wildfire. This is the 3rd day she has been practicing and I didn't even have to remind her how to hold the yarn.

.

 

I am getting stuck, however, trying to show her how to single crochet. I think my mistake is that I will take the work she is doing and then complete the row to get to the next row, and then it is backwards for her....ha ha

 

so i have been trying to complete her rows left handed, ha ha, and it makes me feel like my head is going to implode, ha ha...

 

i guess i just need to practice left handed so i can show her more things:heehee

[MadCityCrochet]

The best advice I have heard is to sit in front of her with your knees touching and basically have her "mirror" what you are doing. That way you can get an easier feel for which way the hook needs to go, etc.

 

Also, there is a great "learn to crochet" kit that is put out by Boye. It comes with hooks and everything, but the best part is that it has very detailed pictures for BOTH left and right handers separately. This is the book I used to re-teach myself to crochet several years ago and I was really impressed.

 

Good luck! Looks like you have another addict on your hands!

 

Sara

[Momcrochets]

That's awesome that your daughter is so into crochet. what a fun mother/daughter thing that could turn into! I had to teach a couple of lefties in the past, (I'm a rightie) and I basically just worked left handed...it took some practise though. (but maybe that's good too...gave me new sympathy for just starting out...It's easy to forget what that feels like) That was for a girls club in our church, and that seemed to work out best.

If you're looking for something more...

Cool Stuff Teach me to Crochet is also a nice book...(The cover is bright, purple, etc) It has good pictures for RH and LHanded stitchers, and some cute and fast, (and even a long) project. Might also give her something to dream over when your DD is ready for something more.

HTH

[Aggie May]

:cheerIf you are right handed. the best thing you can do is teach her right handed.

 

If you teach her left handed, you will never be able to help her by doing a few rows here and there.

 

Many years ago, I taught my sister, then my daughter, then my sisters daughter, all lefties, and they all work beautifully with their right hand.

 

Remember, you are using both hands equally so even if you are a righty, crochet is teaching you to use your left hand a lot.

 

Lefties are smart people who seem to be able to adapt to working with their right hand and soon find their own style, as long as they learn the basic stitch formation.

 

I know it seems mean to expect lefties to adapt but if any of us should ever lose the use of our dominant hand, we would soon adapt our brain to using the other side.

 

Think of it as learnig/teaching a foreign language or even a baby learning to speak in the first place.

The younger you are, the better you adapt.

 

This is my personal opinion only but it comes after almost 60yrs of crocheting and knitting.

 

Have fun.

Colleen:hug

[PoetryinYarn]

i taught a class of 6th grade girls and the one girl who was left-haded had already learned to crochet before but right-handed. let her try both and see what she prefers.

[Addey]

Being a lefty myself....

If part of the problem is that you're finishing rows for her, then have her start with a smaller chain, say 15 stitches. That way it won't seem impossible for her to get to the end to turn around.

I'm not sure how well the mirror thing works for everyone, but it's worth a shot. (My Gram taught me and she was a lefty too... at least most of the time... she may have taught me righty, but when I picked it up again, it just worked beter lefty...)

Also, let her figure out for herself which way (over/underhand) to hold her hook. To me, holding the hook the opposite way is almost as imposible as working righty.

And, for all you know, try teaching her righty, she may take to that even more like a fish to water, who's to say??

[alipurr]

thanks, everyone! I found that I was freaking out when it seemed she was trying to loop over seemingly upside down....I keep forgetting what I tell myself about crochet sometimes.....as long as you keep doing it the same way to get consistent results, what does it matter how you get your stitches? Maybe she will crochet upside down to me, maybe she will loop her yarn backwards....it is just enough of a compliment to me that she wants to do what I do, and sit next to me and work on it. Thanks for the book recommendations, I will look for them. I remember that the visual pictures helped me when I was learning new stitches.

[crochetrenee]

I am now 42 years old. When I was your daughter's age, my Mom tried to teach me right handed crochet. I never got it until I moved away from home and just happened to pick up a book that had right and left handed instructions. Once I was able to use my left hand, it all fell into place. I now design patterns and I also teach crochet at a local college. The advice given about sitting opposite your daughter will work. What you have to do is go slowly, step by step, and have her do exactly everything you are doing. However, you won't be able to finish her rows for her, as everything will be backward to you. As a lefty myself, I teach other lefties as well as right handed people how to crochet and this method has worked well for me. Also, I would recommend keeping her "lessons" in small bites. Teach her to chain one day, then how to sc, then let her practice for a few days before teaching her a hdc, and so on. Good luck! The world needs more crocheting lefties!!!

[EMedley]

I would definitely recommend the Boye books as previously stated! Its how I taught myself, and although I am not left handed I am usually a visual learner. Hobby lobby usually has dvds or books for kids also.

[pennyjah]

I am a left-hander and I used a DVD to teach myself. My mother tried everything to teach me, and nothing worked. As an adult I bought the DVD and watched it over and over again and finally figured it all out. We have to process everything "backwards" so it takes a lot of patience from both people and a child will get frustrated. And remember that everything that a left-hander makes is backwards. Left is right and right is left. lol

[AutumnWindsong]

The only thing I will say about trying to MAKE a left hand child crochet right handed is this...I was crocheting in front of a very nice 40 year old woman not too long ago. She kept looking with LONGING at what I was doing. In asking questions, I found out that she had wanted to crochet ALL HER LIFE, and the 3 people who tried to teach her all tried to make her learn right handed. I offered to teach her, and she claimed that she couldn't, because she had already tried...and couldn't be taught. So, I made myself crochet a dishrag left handed...and showed her how. Within 3 weeks, she had crocheted an afghan. The dishrag I made is probably the worst one I've made since being a child, but I completed it, and taught her in one go.

Blessed Be.

[beth eathorne]

let her try both ways... she will figure out what works best for her. i am a lefty but hold the hook in my right hand. i dont say i crochet right handed because to me the way i hold my tension in my left hand is just as important. and because i am left handed it comes very easy to regulate tension with the left...

 

good luck to you both. that book maybe your best bet

[e.ldelgado]

I taught my left handed friend to crochet right handed. After doing some research she found someone that suggested that I sit in front of her to "sorta" mirror each other and that would help.

[Carradee]

Oh, yeah. The way you loop the yarn around the hook is an individual thing. It changes stitch appearance some, but the issue is that the person does what works for him, not that it's exactly like the person who taught him.

 

…I've actually found it easier to teach lefties than righties (and I'm a rightie) b/c they can just watch what you're doing while sitting across from you. Righties have to try to get the full view from the side, which gets awkward.

 

I can't crochet left-handed either. (Knit yes, crochet no, though maybe I should learn…)

 

I think some of it may be that I teach a bit differently than some others that I've seen. I'm very relaxed; my lack of care over the yarn-pull issue I've already mentioned. (I'll point out that the loop around uses a bit more yarn, but that's all up to the person crocheting.)

 

For one thing, I hand would-be students my crochet hook selection and say "pick one that feels comfortable." I have Boye and Susan Bates, aluminum and a huge plastic one. Second, I'm not picky about how they hold the yarn or hook; it's more important that they find a way that's comfortable and intuitive for them that gets the job done. Holding the yarn is meant to be able to pull it from a skein and keep the tension for the stitchwork, and as long as you can do that, I don't care if you prefer using your toes. And as I've long witnessed crocheting by holding the hook nearly vertical even though I myself can only figure out how to do it more horizontally, you really can't bother me much with that.

 

I also demonstrate with loosely-crocheted very pale, spongey, easy-to-"read" yarn, then point out the pieces of the stitch that make it what it is. (Especially the loop and nub of the chain stitch; once people can see that full loop that makes the front and back loops of stitches, crocheting becomes so much easier.) My students also use a similar if not the same yarn as I do, though usually not nearly as big a hook.

 

Seriously, teaching someone to make a slip knot is more likely to give me a headache than teaching them the single crochet stitch.

[ktkc]

I learned how to crochet right-handed. Recently I found this website http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/. It has pretty good visual instructions to help you learn to crochet left-handed. I have been really trying to master both hands. In one of the videos the woman talks about doing a project with two people one being left-handed and the other right-handed. I love this idea! My two best friends are hookers:hook too so it could work out beautifully!

 

I hope the site helps!!!

Enjoy

[hmltwin]

I think the degree of left-handedness plays a big part in whether or not a left-handed person can learn how to crochet right-handed. I'm very left-handed, so learning to do something like crochet right-handed would have been next to impossible. My mom taught me when I was eight by having me mirror her. Whenever I get stuck on how to do something, she shows me and I mirror her - I still do this, even with knitting. It can be a little confusing at times, but it works out quite well for me.

 

I'll also add that it might not be such a bad thing that you won't be able to start or finish things for her. I have a friend who's watched me crochet and laments that, while she can crochet, but still needs to run to her mother to start or finish anything. Her mother always did those things for her, so she never actually learned them.

[Jaylakay]

I am so excited! I came on here this morning specifically to ask how to teach my 6 year old left handed daughter how to crochet and I find this thread!

We worked on a chain last night (she said she needs to make an afghan now! )

It is difficult with her being left handed and me being right handed but last night I tried with her sitting across from me and I think she understood better than sitting next to me.

I'm not quite sure how to explain to her to hold her hook and the tension at the same time, it's a lot going on in her little hands and then I get confused holding it left handed with her.

 

By the way this is my first post ever, guess I should go to the introduce yourself forum lol!

 

Karissa

[yarnkitty]

I am left handed and when I was little my great grandma taught me to crochet right handed. I was fine. It's worth a try. Then you don't have to reverse and alter most every pattern. My grandma said it was better to work a little harder now than let it be easy and work more the rest of my crocheting life LOL She was a hoot.