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]

Just don't let anyone tell you you're knitting "wrong". It can complicate matters, but there are ways to change how you do decreases and such that will help you fix those complications.

The main thing is that you end up with the results you want without hurting yourself.

[nonniemous]

Okay, some quick googling got me to Annie Modesitt's site where she talks about this. But I'm still confused as to how my purl stitches wind up switching which leg leads--or do I just purl up into the first leg whether it's in the front or the back?

re: "knitting wrong:" What's funny is my stitch'n'bitch buddies, fantastic knitters all, have watched me knit, to tell me "what I was doing wrong", and yet none of them have ever been able to identify what I was doing differently. And I have no idea how I picked up knitting like this, because no one I know does this style.

[sedge]

So let me made a guess about how you purl.

You bring the working yarn to the front. You put the needle in the stitch from the back and bring the needle over the working yarn from the right and over it to the left, then sweeping the yarn back through the stitch. This is a true mirror of a knit stitch.

Here's the continental purl:
Bring the working yarn to the front. Put the needle in the stitch from the back and bring the needle over the working yarn from the *left* and over it to the *right*.

The Norwegian purl (my favorite of the two):

Leaving the working yarn at the back, bring the needle around behind both the working yarn and the stitch. Put the needle in the stitch from behind. Reach back around to the working yarn again, scooping up the yarn from right to left, and bring the needle back through the stitch.

Seriously, go look at these videos: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/purl-stitch

you're almost certainly doing what they call Combination purl. Compare it to continental purl.

If you've got a friend who does regular combined, sit next to them and do your purls at the same time in slow motion. Watch how the needles move over the yarn to scoop it back. One of you will scoop from left to right; one from right to left.

[nonniemous]

Yup, You're exactly right. I did check out those videos, and I am definitely doing the combined purl. It's so much easier than the others! It seems really obvious once you see the various methods all together there. inchainz and I have plans to check out some local stitch'n'bitch groups this week; I'll make sure to do some additional comparisons.

The Norwegian purl looks hard!

And just knowing what's going on makes ALL the difference. Thank you, again, for the help!

[sedge]

You're welcome!

I love knowing things and learning more things and sharing what I know. So I'm glad I could help.

Have fun working out the decreases!

[nonniemous]

Hee! I found a cheat sheet by grumperina. But I think I'm going to table some of my more complicated patterns right now and knit some gauge swatches and get this all straight in my head.

And I understand and share your joy in both knowledge and sharing that knowledge. And it's so much fun when knowledge (yours) meets and fills a serious gap in knowledge (mine!).

*snoopy dance of joy*

[sedge]

Oooh, convenient for (as she says) those moments when the brain isn't up to working it out.