The Yarn Stash

What I'm talking about is the way you hold your yarn and then knit (English, Portugese, Continental or another style I'm unaware of).

When I started knitting I was taught English style. This is holding the yarn in the right hand (if you're knitting right handed that is), then 'throwing' the yarn over the needle and pulling through. I was completely fine with this until I picked up the pace and until I got to ribbing (knit 1, purl 1) which meant I had to move the yarn from back to front, then front to back every single stitch.

It ended up hurting my wrist really badly so I looked into continental and flicking. Both mean you hold the yarn over your index finger without dropping the yarn, and then wrap the yarn around the needle without moving your entire hand.

I'm really disabled with my left hand in terms of fine motorskills (not sure why, but I can't even open a jar or unlock a door with my left) so two days ago I tried continental and it sucked so bad, I gave up. I tried flicking, but I couldn't get the tension right and kept dropping the yarn. Frustration ensued!!

By the end of the night I tried continental again and I somehow figured it out a little. Now two days later, I'm as fast knitting continental as I was English style, except switching from knit to purl and back is a matter of moving my index finger a millimeter or two.

My tension is still the same, as you can see here:



Bottom is knit English, top is knitted continental. I'm pretty stoked about my switch, and the more I'm knitting in my new style, the less I want to do it in my old.

What's your preferred style?

English. And I knit right-handed despite being left-handed, because I was taught how to knit by a right-handed person.

I do English, too. I've been meaning to pick up continental, but haven't done it yet. Not sure I want to try on any of my current projects, lest my gauge go all wonky. Maybe the next time I'm doing something where the gauge doesn't matter so much, I'll give it a go.

I'd want to learn it before I try anything done in Fair Isle, though. Throwing in one hand with one colour and picking with the other hand in the other colour sounds like it would just be way more efficient than switching yarns all the time.

I'm doing English now, but reading what you wrote, when I was first taught 15+ years ago, I was doing continental and I was taught to knit one row and purl the other without ever moving my needles, I just went from left to right to left.

I actually also just taught myself to work with my right as my dominant, it's very weird for me!

Left-handed knitting kind of boggles my mind. Did find an interesting left handed continental video if you want to try it. Although you'd be knitting with your active needle left, which may be hand if you knit right-handed.


I just started knitting on the rib stitch of my market bag because the tension was sort of irrelevant for that part (it's something that gets stretched so much it will even out in the long run as it is). Why not cast on a simple stockinette or garter swatch and give it a go, then take it out again?


Knitting backwards is a skill I'm interested in too! Isn't that just basically knitting one row right-handed and one row left-handed?

Sanne- Yeah, I just knitted a row lefthanded, a row righthanded, etc, and wund up with stockinette stitch. That's awesome, because the two things I like least about knitting are turning my work and purling.

Pretty much. I'm going to try and do that again when I'm finished my current project.