I have been running a knitting club at school, with just a few grade 4 and 5 girls, most of whom have never knitted before. Even as an experienced teacher, I found it hard to teach these girls to do something that I do without thinking. But I have managed it – to a point. We have been knitting squares to make a blanket and I have also appealed to the wider school community for some help with this, or else the blanket will be very, very small. Two of the four girls have managed to complete only one square. And calling them ‘squares’ is perhaps a mathematical oddity as neither of them are exactly ‘square’. One of them, in fact, resembles a trapezoid on drugs. But, they have had fun and learnt a new skill, almost. The look of concentration on their faces at the beginning was adorable and as the weeks passed, they became more and more relaxed and we had some good chats. The current club season has come to an end but they have asked that I run the club again next season, which is encouraging. In order to give our blanket the maximum chance of completion, I now host an informal drop-in knitting session in my room during lunchtime on Tuesdays and a few more girls have come along to learn the ancient art.

What has been an interesting side benefit of this club, however, is that it has rekindled my love of knitting. One of the things that makes living in China a challenge is not being able to buy things as easily as one would in one’s home country. I have yet to discover the equivalent of an English knitting shop. We do, however, have TaoBao – where would we be without TaoBao? TaoBao is the most wonderful online shopping I have ever encountered: you can buy ANYTHING! Stephen’s and my Halloween costumes, for example, came to the grand total of 20rmb (less than $30, about £20). The biggest problem, however, is that you have to run what you want through a translator first as everything is in Chinese so you don’t always get what you expect!

I have discovered that Chinese people tend to use double ended knitting needles, or those with a wire between and I’ve found it very hard to find the sort of needles I’m used to. However, I have used this rekindled passion for knitting to try out Pinterest for the first time as I researched some ideas for knitting squares – another added side benefit of the club. I’m a true lifelong learner. It has been a little frustrating, to be honest, and I’m not sure if it’s me or the vagaries of Pinterest. I’m reserving judgement, let’s put it that way.

I have, therefore, realised, that I do not have to knit boring old garter stitch squares like we did in school. I thought I was being daring and creative by using stripes – but now I’m using this square knitting exercise to practise all sorts of stitches and I’m having a lot of fun into the bargain. The stack of squares are piling up on my table, and makes me realise that stitching them all together is not going to be fun – getting them to fit together will be a challenge in itself, as they’re not exactly all the same size.

It remains to be seen whether my rekindled passion in knitting will last longer than my interest in Pinterest – I suspect it will outlast it by a long shot.