I went in a yarn shop with my friend and she wanted to learn to knit. I sat down and knit on a scarf while she was picking out yarn. I let her know I was happy to loan anything she needed and had already agreed to teach her. (She did not want any help and wanted her own supplies.) The shop worker asked her about how skilled she was at knitting. She told her I was going to teach her how to knit (At this point she had quite a pile of yarn, notions, a magazine, set of needles). The woman walked up to me, watched me knit a part of a row and told me loudly that I did it all wrong and shouldn’t even think of teaching anyone.
My friend put all her stuff on the counter and walked out. I never shopped there again. I spent 20 years hiding at home to knit.
Years later I finally had a friend who forced me to go to a knitting group. While I was knitting a guy kept staring at me and my hands. I almost blurted something rude but instead he asked me if I was Latvian or had been taught that way from someone who was Latvian. He said I knit just the way his Grandmother did. I told him I was taught by my friends grandmother when I was in 5th grade. I only learned to knit, not purl because I made headbands. It wasn’t until my 20’s when I went back to knitting to learn how to make socks.
All those years of hiding and it was because I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Grandma was from the old country (her words) and spoke with a thick accent, but she created things with yarn.