Indie Publishing Stories, Part 4: The Learn to Knit Kit

This wonky knit swatch represents a huge accomplishment for me. Knitting is my crafty kryptonite – the one craft I have never been able to grasp.

So when Tara Swiger (of Blonde Chicken Boutique fame) contacted me about her new Learn to Knit ebook kit, I figured if anyone could test its educational value, it was me.

With this kit, Tara wanted to re-create the experience of having an experienced knitting teacher sitting beside you as you learn. She's included a ball of beginner-friendly yarn (your choice of five colors) and a set of bamboo needles, along with an instructional ebook and a set of videos.

And it's the multi-media part of this project that really excites me. Someday, I'll bet that we'll be able to embed videos into ebooks, and then they'll begin to compare very favorably against print books. But I digress.

I sat down with Learn to Knit, and some needles and yarn I had on hand. I watched the video for making a slip knot. So far, so good. Then I watched the one for casting on. Got confused. Then I went to the ebook and read about casting on there. Ah, that made sense. Then I went back to the video. Okay, now I have it. And so on.

Tara has clearly taught a lot of people the basics, because she knows exactly what pitfalls beginners are likely to encounter, and she explains them at exactly the right moments in the process. She finally helped me understand why all my previous attempts at knitting have resulted in the yarn being wound so tightly around the needles, they wouldn’t move.

And her writing is so great for a beginner – it’s very friendly, and she draws all kinds of good analogies to help you understand how the yarn moves, where the needles should be, and what your hands should be doing.

It’s so helpful to be able to move back and forth between ebook and video, too. Each one does a great job of explaining, but they use different methods, so you end up with a very complete understanding.

Contrast this to so many printed craft books (and frankly, so many mainstream “learn to knit” kits), where there are lots of pretty pictures of finished pieces, but then the actual knitting instruction is relegated to a bunch of hard-to-read diagrams.

Tara’s ebook-plus-video approach was also great in that inevitable (for me) moment where the phone rings, and by the time you return to your knitting, you’ve forgotten what you were doing. I was able to go back to the video, and then re-read the instructions in the ebook, and find my place. It’s like having a “teacher” who will literally explain the steps to you as many times as you need. For me, that’s a lot of times.

The Learn to Knit Kit also includes two beginner-friendly patterns: this cowl, and a knitted washcloth. And both are written in what Tara calls Regular English and KnitSpeak, so beginners don’t have to get tripped up with pattern-language too soon.

I’m super excited about this approach to crafty educational publishing, and hope to see lots more. Tara, when are your kits for all the other knitting stitches coming out?