Fast or slow?

My February 2025 classes are starting soon, and I was chatting to a friend about my method of teaching. “You should teach a robot to knit”, she said. “That would make the news!”. I replied that surely someone has already thought about doing that. With the help of Google I discovered the work of Pat Treusch, a Doctor of Philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin. She experimented with teaching a robot to knit, not to replace hand knitting, but to explore the interaction between people and machines. What I found interesting was that the process led her to describe knitting as complicated, requiring many movements. This may seem true if you watch someone knitting; however, over time these movements become so automatic that experienced knitters almost look like robots. Just watch Hazel Tindall, who won the title of the World’s Fastest Knitter in 2008! As you can see from Hazel’s video, the trick to fast knitting is to minimise your hand movements. I teach beginners to hold their needles and yarn in a way that promotes this efficiency, because it has other benefits. Holding your yarn and needles in a certain way and making small movements with your hands and fingers regulate the tension of your yarn, so that your stitches will be even. Importantly, small movements help minimise hand fatigue.

Being efficient does not mean that you have to knit fast. Over time all knitters find their own speed. I am sure there is great satisfaction in being a fast knitter, and it can be a very useful skill - Mamma once knitted a whole jumper in a weekend, because my brother needed it for school on Monday. For me there is a wonderful comfort in slowing down when I knit. Slow knitting makes you aware of the feel of the yarn in your hands, you stop to admire your work, you picture your completed project, and you spot a mistake before you have knitted 20 rows past it … Of course I will be happy to knit a small jumper in a weekend if someone desperately needs it, but until then I will continue to treat myself to the delicious luxury of slow knitting.

Enjoying the feel of the hand spun yarn from Greycliff Wool Works | Montana