question about purling

[nonniemous]

inchainz  and I have been discussing this randomly, and I've been searching for an answer in all my knitting books, but I haven't found one.  So I come here, to the knitting group, fount of all wisdom re: knitting, and I ask:

When purling, if the first leg of the stitch is behind the needle, do you go through that instead, or do you always default to the leg that's in front of the needle?  Seems to me it would make things twist funny.  I know when I knit, I go through the first leg, front or back.  Purling front leg only can also result in a twist, so ...

Yeah, okay.  This is probably a really stupid question.  But it's itching at me!  Anyone have any wisdom to share?

Comments

[sedge]

Ok. You're a regular combined knitter (which is actually what I expected once you said "continental"; it's the more natural combination for that style).

You have two options:

1. Change how you think about decreases (might not be necessary when you're working in the round). Most patterns are not written for combination knitting, as you've been finding.

Right leaning decreases (the decrease leans like this: /):When you see k2tog, you'll need to fiddle around the stitch mounts so that they go the other way. Here's what I do (there's other methods too): slip the individual stitches to your right needle purlwise (so the right leg ends up in front). Slip the stitches back to the left needle (you can do this in one motion). Knit the two stitches together.

Left leaning decreases (decrease leans the other way: \ ): these are the ones that are harder for Western non-combination knitters and easier for you. You'll see this written as SSK or SKP or Sl, k, PSSO, or a whole range of things. These you can just knit two stitches together.

Things get more complicated to describe when you start getting into the double decreases (three sts decreased to one). I will leave them as an exercise for the reader (cop-out!). If you can't work them out, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. :D

2. Change how you purl. Your two options as a continental knitter are both visible in videos on this page: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/purl-stitch . You'll need to choose from "continental purl" or "Norwegian purl". Pay close attention to the direction the needle moves in relation to the yarn - you can't just pick the yarn through the loop in the easy direction.

[nonniemous]

Okay, I do the "knit two together" (and actually knit three together") in this manner for the left leaning decreases already. And to compensate on the right leaning decreases, I would go in back against the stitch, left to right, instead of right to left. No wonder they were twisting funny. Reseating the stitch makes a whole lot more sense.

I honestly don't want to change how I purl; my current method is fast and looks just like my knit stitches, (when I don't get that odd twist in them); when I've tried changing it they come out tighter and smaller. But if I pay attention to the rest of this, I should be able to keep going the way I'm going.

Thank you EVER so much for all this! You've been fantastically helpful, and explained something I couldn't even articulate. ♥♥♥

[sedge]

You're quite welcome!

Having learned about combination knitting, I've learned to recognize the signs. :D But you're right, it's pretty uncommon for people to know about it.