I’m an English knitter. And I don’t mean I cast-on with a cockney accent, for those non-knitters who are bored enough to be reading this post. It means I secure my working yarn with my right hand as opposed to my left (which would make me a continental knitter). Since I started knitting that has bothered me. Why? Because I’m a life-long crocheter and I hold the working yarn in my left hand when I crochet. No matter which hand I hold it in, I hold it the same way. I loop it around my pinky and then over my forefinger. So WHY?!?!?!?! can I not master continental knitting? Why am I harping about all of this? Because I’ve started making gloves and wristwarmers and such and I was messing around last night making a completely random wristwarmer for myself and I got the idea to try continental halfway through and I got about 10 stitches in and gave up ‘cuz it was going so freakin’ slow and just now (oh about 10 rows and a thumb later) I realized that all of those stitches are twisted! So, either I’m a moron or you can’t switch between knitting styles mid-project, which makes absolutely no sense to me so I must be doing it wrong which would explain why I can’t make it work!
April 13, 2007
April 13, 2007 at 10:46 am
As a person who learned to crochet first, then knit…I can totally commiserate. I hold the yarn with my left hand to crochet, but with my right to knit. I cannot master the continental. My tension is *really* tight, plus I don’t like how my purls turn out.
I’m a much faster thrower anyway :P
April 13, 2007 at 11:18 am
I think if you switch from continental to english, you need to knit through the back loop to avoid the twist. I don’t remember the details, but I think it was covered in a knitting mag within the last two years.
I can’t seem to master continental either, and can stitch along fast enough with an English approach.
April 13, 2007 at 11:28 am
I also crochet but learned to knit English style. The trick to master continental is to make certain that you wrap the yarn counterclockwise around the needle (clockwise will make it twist). The SnB Handbook has the best description I know of. I did one sweater testing it out a month ago. Once I got the hang of it, it definitely was much faster. The only drawback is that I tend to over-use/exert my left wrist (something I do in crochet) so I’m back to English on part of my new project.
I haven’t mastered purling yet, but I seem to do it faster English…
If you throw fast, your knitting speed will probably be about the same..
April 13, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the tips, ladies! And congrats, geckogrrl! That is the best engagement story I’ve ever heard.
I do throw pretty fast, so I should be satisfied…but I have bilateral tendonitis in my arms and for some reason I cannot knit for extended periods of time without pain. But when I crochet, no problems. So I was thinking if I could master continental it might help :)
April 17, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I haven’t been able to master crochet, other than to make the world’s longest foundation chain (Oh, I’ll learn to turn around and go the other way tomorrow). However, I learned to knit from a nice lil book called Kids Knitting, by Melanie Falick, and she teaches Continental knitting in there (I was 26 when I picked up that book, figuring that if I couldn’t learn from a children’s book, there was no hope).
About a year after learning short rows, I taught myself how to knit backwards so that I didn’t have to knit 10 stitches, turn, purl 10 stitches, turn, etc. The funny thing is that when I knit backwards, I knit English…lefthanded. Well, I think it’s funny, anyway. Either way, my left hand does the throwing.
You CAN learn to knit Continental, and if you have tendonitis or CTS or arthritis you probably should. Have you tried the videos at knittinghelp.com?
April 17, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I totally have tried – those videos are awesome. In fact, everything else I learned about knitting I learned from her videos. The big mystery for me is why do my arms always fall asleep when I’m knitting, but not when I crochet? And how will knitting Continental-style prevent this from happening? Is there a doctor in the house?