When I was in grad school I had some friends who crocheted, so I asked them to teach me. I got the hang of that fairly quickly, but I always thought it was too inhibiting. There is only so much you can do with a crochet hook and, in my opinion, a lot of it just isn't all that attractive. Shortly after graduating, while working for a different library system, one of the library assistants started a teen knitting club. She repeatedly offered to teach me how to knit, but I kept refusing. (The whole two needles thing, again.)
Then I started working at my current branch, which has a firmly established stitching group that meets twice a week, and finally decided to give knitting a try. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that knitting is actually easier than crocheting! Sure, my knitting style is kind of off-beat, but the finished products look great, so I guess it really doesn't matter.
I have a very short attention span, so I usually stick to knitting smaller projects. I've knitted hats of various styles (one of my own design!), an ice cream cozy, and scarves galore. Anything more than a scarf and I would probably lose interest halfway through, and it would be months and months before I picked the project up again. (If I'm being honest, I have a couple of scarves that have fallen victim to that very fate.) I would love to eventually knit a throw, but I'm positive it would end up taking me several years of stopping and starting to finish.
2) As mentioned previously, the branch I work at already has an established stitching group. It was in place well before I started working here, and has been going strong ever since. In my experience starting other groups (ex: book clubs), it is always easiest to have one person in charge and a core group of at least a few people to get things off the ground. It is possible to start a group without any people previously committed to it, but it is much more difficult. If I were at a branch with no stitching group, I would try to scout interest among patrons (perhaps through signage in the stitching section), staff, friends and family members before actually setting up a meeting. It would probably still be a slow build, but starting with some attendees would at least carry the group for the time it takes for other people to find out about and become interested in the group.
Finally, to prove that I actually do knit and didn't just make all of this up, a picture of a hat I designed and made earlier this year:
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