A couple of weeks ago, my sister called me and said she wanted to learn to knit, which was slightly amusing because she’s always been somewhat derisive about my knitting hobby (obsession?).  But, I’m all for someone changing her mind, especially when it has to do with knitting.  The prospect of teaching her to knit was complicated slightly by the fact that she lives in Texas.  There would be no sitting down with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake and having a sisterly stitch and bitch.  But, with the benefits of web chatting and online videos, I was confident that it could be done.  I went down to the LYS and picked out some chunky yarn that I thought she’d like and would be fun to knit a scarf with.

The yarn is Araucania Limari in color 554 and I picked up some Clover size 13 needles to go with it.  Originally, I wanted a worsted or aran weight, but I couldn’t find anything I thought she’d like, so I went with the chunky yarn and the larger needles.  I sent her the yarn, needles, and my Stitch n Bitch book.  Like many books in my collection, it was perfect for me when I bought it, but I’ve outgrown it.  I love that I could pass it on to my sister and that she’ll get a lot of use out of it too.  I also sent her an e-mail with a link to knittinghelp.com because I thought the videos would be helpful since I wasn’t there to show her how to do everything and the closest yarn store is more than a half an hour away.

I sent the yarn and Stacy and I made plans to video chat on that Saturday morning so we could go over the basics of casting on and knitting.  The yarn arrived at her house on Friday and an hour after she’d unpacked the box she had figured out how to cast on and how to knit by just using the book and the videos.  She’s a natural!  I was so impressed with her.  She said it wasn’t even that hard to figure it out.  We still had our video chat on Saturday and by the time we were done she had about 12 inches of her garter stitch scarf done.

It took her just over a week to finish both balls of yarn and bind off.  Now she needs to weave in the ends and she’s ready for her next project.

She’s decided on a hat she saw on Knit Picks.  I helped her buy the yarn, book, and needles this morning and I’ll help her get started - but she’ll probably have it figured out before we even get together, knowing her.

I’m so excited that my sister is knitting and that she’s enjoying it.  She works nights and she says it’s a great way to unwind when she gets home from work.  I love that this is something we can share and that we have in common.  I’m hoping to get her on Ravelry, but if not, I’ll keep you posted on her progress.