Knitting dyslexia?

[untonuggan]

I keep having the following situation happen to me. I'll be happily knitting along, say on a 2x2 rib. In my mind I'm thinking, "Knit two, purl two, knit two..." Then at some point I think I've messed up. My mind says I should be knitting, but I'm purling!

Except I'm not. I've just gotten befuddled somehow. My hands know what to do, and hopefully my brain will figure it out before I pull back perfectly good stitching.

My mom seems to have this problem as well, although perhaps more seriously. She just started knitting recently after having been the only woman in her nuclear family who didn't knit. (She crochets, though.) She grew up thinking that knitting was purling and purling was knitting, and so she's been having a hard time "reading her knitting" to tell where she is in a pattern. I generally try to tell her to look where the loop is, but that doesn't seem to stick in her memory.

Do other people have this problem? Any potential solutions?

Comments

[eruanna]

Good tip, thanks! :)

[evilawyer]

You're welcome. And sorry about leaving out the word "awkward" in there -- I'm a bit too uncoordinated to pick up a purl stitch without hands feeling like I'm making them do contortions.

[eruanna]

I know that feeling. :) I've had arthritis in my hands since I was 20, and am not very coordinated anyway. Knitting does seem to help with keeping my fingers limber, though.

[evilawyer]

Definitely so, although I've found that knitting helps limber up all my fingers except the first joint on my left thumb (injury-related arthritis). That joint, knitting actually makes ache (although not as much as crocheting makes it ache when the fabric gets heavy). A young lady at one of the yarn shops I shop at showed me some square knitting needles from Germany that are supposed to feel better on the fingers --- less stress on the joints, she said. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in the size I needed in stock that day, and the samples were all rigged up to a display board so there was no way to test them out. I'll have to stop in and see if they have any in stock now.

[eruanna]

That's very interesting. I'll have to start looking around for square needles and try them out. Thanks. :)

I switched to Continental style recently. It was almost like learning to knit all over again, but it seems to be much more comfortable for my hands. Less thumb and wrist pain, especially when I overdo it and knit too long without a break.

[evilawyer]

I give Continental a try every once in awhile and can do okay with knit, but I can't seem to master it for purling. Of course, I suppose I could use Continental for knitting and English for the purls. That I only thought of that just now is a bit embarrassing.

[eruanna]

I see that both WEBS and Jimmy Beans Wool have Cubix needles. I can't order anything right now, but might try them eventually if I can't find this type of needle in my area.

You might try YouTube for some different ways of purling and/or holding your yarn that will make it much easier with Continental. The first way I tried was extremely awkward and I did go back to English. Just experimenting for awhile, I came up with a different way of holding my yarn that made purling just as easy as English for me. Here is one method that looks easy and comfortable. I can't find a video that does it the way I do it, but you could just play with it for awhile until you find a 'picking' or 'flicking' method that is comfortable for you.