Saturday, January 10, 2015

My switch to continental knitting

It's been awhile since I wrote that I was switching to continental style knitting. You know, where you hold your working yarn in your left hand like a crocheter does. Since I've been a crocheter as long as I've been a knitter I decided to try it. See, the knitter who taught me knitted English style, and she simply held the yarn in her right hand and threw it around the needle to make the stitch. So, that's how I knitted for most of my life.

Then I decided "Well, I already hold my yarn like that for crocheting, how hard can it be to hold it like that while knitting and pick up the stitches?" Turns out it was a bit awkward-feeling at first, until I found a rhythm that suited me. Now I'm knitting quite smoothly. I can't say that my gauge is quite consistent, but I never make things where gauge is so crucial that being off just a little would be a disaster.

I've also just started trying the combined method of knitting. This is where you make your purl stitches 'backwards' by wrapping the yarn in the opposite direction of how you're taught when you make it. This leaves the stitch backwards in the following row, so you work the stitch through its back leg to orient it correctly when you slide it off the needle.

On a funny aside note: I can just see myself knitting like this in a public place and having some random knitter walk up to me and tell me "You're doing that wrong!" To which I can just shrug and say "Just because my style doesn't match your style doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means it's different."

Or ask where the knitter's book of laws is so I can read it and not get arrested for 'doing something wrong'. And then point them to the many sites which describe combined knitting ;)

Laughable, isn't it? But it happens. I haven't had the displeasure, but I've read enough about other knitters or crocheters being accosted by these 'snobs' to know it happens.

I'm not sure if anyone even reads my ramblings due to no comments, but that's okay. I just like to ramble, and if it means rambling to myself, then I'll ramble to myself.

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