Do you remember when you first learned to knit? I was a small child, so my memories are dim. But I do remember the confounding tangle of yarn and needles and that sense of wonder when stitches began to pile themselves one on another to make fabric (albeit fabric with a lot of holes).

The yarn was this nasty gold, an odd ball from a cable-knit sweater my mother knit for my grandmother. We tied two pieces of yarn to my finished "piece" and called it a head scarf, a hideous accessory I paraded around in proudly.

I suppose there are some knitting teachers who hate teaching beginners, with all the fiddling, dropping, confusion and general mayhem that comes when you give adults sticks and yarn. But I love it. Grownups have very few chances to learn something from the very start where every move is new and the terms are fresh and unfamiliar. Though adults are often quite hard on themselves when mastering a new skill, a bit of cajoling can put people in that place where it's just play, where a dropped stitch becomes a source of fun and a scarf with holes a source of pride.