The Joy of Learning to Read

My daughter wearing one of the hats I knitted for her after I learned to read American knitting patterns.

I just began a new knitting project the other day–a hat for my brother–and it occurred to me that only a few years ago, I had not been able to interpret American knitting patterns. I learned to knit and crochet in Germany, where I grew up, and so German knitting and crocheting patterns are second nature to me. I understand their language, their abbreviations and signs, the sizing of knit...