Continental and English

[aedifica]

I've always been a "drop the working yarn after every stitch" knitter rather than knitting English or Continental. (I taught myself from a book when I was young, and I couldn't make sense of the instructions for how to wrap the yarn around your fingers so I just skipped that part. Though I discovered a few years ago I had also taught myself knitting through the back loop instead of regular knitting, and that was why my decreases always slanted wrong!)

I knit very nicely if I do say so myself, but rather slowly, and I think my speed would improve if I switched to one of the more common styles. So I finished up my last WIP that needed a consistent gauge, and I'm teaching myself Continental right now.

Any comments, suggestions, advice, cries of horror, etc? How do you knit, and what do you like about that style? If you knit Continental yourself (which my instructions say is also called left-handed knitting, "picking," or German knitting) how do you keep tension on the yarn? I'm experimenting with different ways now.

Comments

[jumpuphigh]

Do you knit through the back of the loop and perl to the front? If so, that is called Eastern Uncrossed and refers to the stitches specifically not the way you hold the yarn. That's how I knit and I have found that holding the yarn in my left hand works best although the actual hold from Continental Style knitting doesn't work for me.

As far as your decreases when knitting through the back, there are ways to make them work but I've never found a book that actually shows it. I've just had to work it out myself.

[aedifica]

I don't knit through the back of the loop anymore except when a pattern calls for it (trained myself out of it after I found out the difference), but it's neat to know there's a name for my old style too!

[fatoudust]

Yeah, this is me too! I mean, I didn't knit through the back, but I taught myself out of a book and so my methods are suspect. I'm brand new, really.

I actually knit English, but I'm learning Continental which seems quicker to me. But I have real issues with the thread tension, which is more important there.

So how do people hold the yarn? I tried the knittinghelp.com video way, but somehow I drop the yarn when I actually go for the stitch, and am unable to keep consistent tension.

Not helpful, I know! I just wanted to pipe up and say I'm interested in peoples' responses.

[aedifica]

Hope you find something useful here, then!

So far I'm wrapping the yarn once around my middle finger, and letting it rest across my index finger, and that's working pretty well for me. But I'm also trying other ways to see if there's something I like even better.

[james]

There are also videos on youtube which can show you how people do it. What I find is that if I check out several knitting videos by different people, it's easier to figure out what's going on.

I knit Continental and have done for years so I don't remember how I learned. *But* I used to hold the yarn in my left hand completely wrong so that I had almost no tension on the stitch (and so my gauge was much looser). So I tried just wrapping the yarn around one finger of my left hand, but otherwise I kept everything the same (I don't hold my index finger up to keep the yarn tense and move the needle around the yarn strand. My index finger raises and lowers with every stitch and I have to pick up the yarn with it when I switch to a purl stitch and back).

So my advice is - it may be annoying and hard and slow, but I highly recommend learning the most common way of Continental knitting because it really is faster and you get a nice tight stitch. I've tried fixing my grip, but it's just too ingrained and I figure I'm fast enough as it is. (Which is not fast, but not terribly slow either).

[aedifica]

I also like the videos on knittinghelp.com--I'm not sure I'd have thought of checking YouTube for this. Thanks for that idea!

[twistedchick]

I learned knitting by watching my mother, and so I picked up her way of holding yarn:

1. Make a Spock Hand (first two and last two fingers together) and put the yarn into the gap with your hand facing the thing you're knitting.
2. Holding your knitting in the other hand, bring the yarn down and around so that it crosses over the back of your hand.
3. Loop the yarn around your first finger.

At this point I can do the wrap by moving my hand and not the yarn ball or the knitting. You can adjust tension by using more or fewer fingers (little and ring, 3 fingers for high tension, just the little one for very low tension) and by how much leeway you give yourself in the yarn on the first finger. She was able to use this method to knit with two colors of yarn, by looping them separately (step 3 above) around first and second fingers.

Hope that is helpful!

[fatoudust]

Any instruction that starts out with Spock Hand is a good one! Will try.

[aedifica]

I'll have to give the Spock Hand a try! Thanks! Right now I've been wrapping the yarn once around my middle finger on its way to my index finger, and that's working fairly well for me, but I'm trying other styles to see if there's something else even better.

[holyschist]

I just learned to knit, Continental style, and I guess I kind of tension by wrapping the yarn loosely around my right pinkie and running it through the fingers of that hand. My problem is actually way too much tension, so I regularly remind myself to knit like a baby bunny. Probably not very helpful, sorry.

[geeksdoitbetter]

hee!

show me how the bunny knits!

[holyschist]

Heh. It's really just a way to remind myself to keep my hands relaxed and not pull stitches super-tight, especially, when casting on and the row before binding off.

[aedifica]

Well, I've heard of knit like a pirate. I guess knit like a bunny is the opposite? :-)

[holyschist]

How do pirates knit?

[aedifica]

Like this!

[holyschist]

Oooh, I like the Carrick bend cap. The tricorn is sort of terrifying.

I came across a really cute painting this weekend of a sheep trying to knit that had tangled itself up in yarn hopelessly (I wish I could remember the artist). Realistically, I imagine baby bunnies would knit the same.

[aedifica]

My dad gave me a birthday card that had a drawing of a sheep knitting a sweater--but it was wearing the sweater it was knitting, and it was knitting its own wool into the sweater! (No idea how the wool became yarn, as there was no spinning involved, but details, details.) It was a cute card.

[ginny_t]

When I learned to knit continental, my tension went all to hell. It's a good idea to learn on a project that you'll either frog or you don't care about all that much.

I found learning to wrap the yarn not hard at all, but I credit crochet for that.

Good luck!

[aedifica]

But I crochet the same way I first learned to knit--drop the yarn anytime you're not immediately using it. This too may change.

[suze2000]

My Grandma taught me to knit and crochet when I was young. As a result, I knit (what I know know is) English style. She taught me to wrap the wool around my right pinkie and then run it over my fingers to my index finger. The tightness of the wool on the pinkie controls the tension. This works both for knitting and crochet and after a while, it's automatic. Though I am by no means a knitting expert, haha.

[aedifica]

It's neat that you got to learn from your grandma! My one remaining grandma still makes afghans, but we've always lived halfway across the country from her so I was never around when she was doing it.

[gumbie_cat]

I find the English style of knitting totally baffling, continental makes way more sense to me. Personally, I just tension the yarn between my index and middle fingers - like in the knitting help video but without bothering to wrap the yarn round my little finger first. My tension is altered by how tightly those fingers are pressed together.

[aedifica]

Huh. Right now I've been wrapping the yarn once around my middle finger on its way to my index finger, which sounds like a just slightly more intricate version of what you're doing. Maybe I'll give that a try too and see if I like it even better than this, or not.

[smeddley]

I crocheted LONG before I knit, so I can't wrap my head around the English style (plus, it is slower, and I"m an impatient crafter!). So I hold the yarn the same way as when I crochet - it goes over my left index finger, then between my index and middle finger into the palm of my hand (into the crease at the base of my ring finger and pinkie). I use my index and middle fingers to hold the left needle, and slight changes in how tightly I curl my ring finger and pinkie changes the tension.

[aedifica]

I too hold the yarn the same way as how I crochet--but that's because I learned to crochet from a book too and never got the hang of the yarn-wrapping for it either. :-) Maybe my crocheting style will change from learning a new knitting style!

[starfish]

Let me see if I can 'splain -- I take the yarn from the ball, over my left palm and between my ring and little fingers. It then goes over the backs of my fingers/knuckles and drapes over my pointer to where the work is. I hold the work between my thumb and ring fingers, and manipulate the yarn for knits with my middle finger (nudging it back over the needle); for purls with my pointer (pushing it down/around the needle in front). A lot of the action is done with needle angle, sometimes it's like I'm "digging" for the yarn when I purl, but I find it almost as easy as knitting.

I hold the yarn in exactly the same way as when I crochet, which I learned when I was quite wee. Oddly enough, at that same time I was learning to knit "American" (drop the yarn between each stitch).

Depending on the yarn thickness I can also wrap the yarn around the pinky in either direction (for more or less tension). Described above is how I would hold for worsted; I knit a lot more with sock yarn, which is wrapped once around.

FWIW, I just looked at the video tutorial on Knitpicks.com, and it looks much harder to me than how I do it -- my yarn is further back on my finger, and it's easier to move around than they make it look. All the tension comes from the friction between my little finger and my ring finger.

Sorry for rambling on ... I am very enthusiastic about Continental.

[aedifica]

Ooh. For me that would be really uncomfortable (I tried out the action and my hand doesn't like bending that way) but it's interesting to read how you do it!

[evilawyer]

I find Continental makes my purling go extremely fast.

[aedifica]

Really? I haven't gotten the hang of Continental purling yet despite my efforts, so I was thinking maybe I would just learn English purling to go with my Continental purling. But I'll give it more of a try since you said that!

[ginny_t]

I agree that purling is much easier in Continental. Miles of ribbing (actually, the Pomatamus sock) is the reason I learned.

I actually do what's called combined knitting, where I wrap the purls in the wrong direction. I find that's easier (less round & round & round). The trick is to go through the back loop on the next row so that the stitch doesn't get twisted. This also results in tidier ribbing. The other way, the purls were loose and sloppy. :(

[aedifica]

Doesn't your yarn untwist when you wrap the purls the wrong direction?

[ginny_t]

A little bit, yes, but not enough that it's become a problem. So far.

[clare_dragonfly]

It depends on the yarn. (I am also a Combined knitter, which I believe is the same style as sometimes called Eastern Uncrossed, as the first commenter mentioned.) I find that some yarns are not plied as tightly and clearly untwist on the purl rows, some untwist a little but not enough to make a difference in the appearance of the finished fabric, and some don't seem to untwist at all. Obviously I'm more likely to buy the latter two again!

Also, I don't mean to jump on either of you, but it's not "wrapping the purls in the wrong direction." It may be the opposite of the way the purls are wrapped in Western (Continental/English) knitting, but it is the correct direction for Combined knitting. The knit stitches are "through the back loop" (or to use the terminology I prefer, through the far side of the stitch [and that's only when knitting straight stockinette or garter in the round]) and the purl stitches wrap counterclockwise. I find this purl much, much easier and better for even tension than the Western Continental purl!

And as to the question about holding the yarn, I hold my yarn in my left hand, over my pinky, under my middle fingers, and over my pointer finger. If I want to tighten my tension I tilt my hand away.

[aedifica]

For me it's the wrong direction because when I do it that way, my yarn untwists. But I've learned from this thread that that's not true for everyone!

If I were to knit again, I'd learn continental

[jazzypom]

I think the best way is to do a moss stitch baby blanket, with cheapish yarn and just knit. I tend to knit continental or 'picking' by following videos on youtube. I can do English, and do it quickly, but yeah, I think if I mastered continental, my knits would be just a little bit faster.

Are you on ravelry? I know that Rox (ask a knitter) has some good tips on knitting continental in her catalogue of posts.

Re: If I were to knit again, I'd learn continental

[aedifica]

Yep, I'm on ravelry as aedifica. I'll check for those tips, thank you!