"No, not between the loops -

through the loop," I tell her again...and again.
There was knitting yesterday. We are trying to teach someone to knit. She desperately wants to learn and several of us are doing the best we can to help her learn.
J is brain damaged. She has a "closed brain injury", caused by severe concussion in a car accident. She is big and uncoordinated. Her personal hygiene leaves something to be desired. Yesterday was fine and warm but she was wearing her raincoat over a frilly organza blouse. It made her perspire but the suggestion she might take it off was met with, "I might forget it."
Even suggesting we would remind her to take it was not enough to make her remove her coat.
She has a pattern. She has "wool" and she has needles. The pattern is actually rather nice although the size range is not nearly large enough for her. She does not have nearly enough of the cheap acrylic yarn she found in the charity shop. The needles are about the right size - the woman in the charity shop apparently helped her choose them.
Those of us trying to help - there are three of us - are not too worried about the pattern or the yarn or the needles. Instead we admire her determination. We encourage. We show her over and over again...and yes, she is slowly getting the idea. When she manages to finish a row of about twenty stitches we are pleased for her - but not too pleased because she knows the difference between genuine and false praise.  She knows too that her work is not perfect. Does it matter? No. We have all, quite deliberately, talked about the way we dropped stitches when we started. We all tell her that she will get better at it - and I genuinely believe that.
I talked with one of her other "teachers" yesterday. There is enough yarn there for her to make a "beanie". If she can knit the top this woman thinks it might be acceptable to "help" her knit a band for it. Then she can sew it together - no doubt with more help - and use it. She will probably wear it in the summer. It will look odd but I doubt it will worry her. She will have done much towards making it herself.
And when she has done that then we will give her a small present in celebration. I have a skein of nice yarn put aside for her. It was in the boxes of yarn my friend sent me before she died and I think she would be delighted to see it used that way.