Continental, American or Both?

[debbiecakes]

Just out of curiousity, how does everyone knit?

I am continental knitting a super bulky queen-king sized blanket.
I am American knitting two different sport scarves.

For me:
Continental Style = loose, relaxed and quick.
American Style = Tight, tense and slooooow.

The super bulky blanket looks great but when I tried the sport weighted scarves, they ended up looking sloppy so I started over with the American style. Just a quick comparison, I casted on 12 when I started with continental but when I switched to American I had to cast on 26.

I've been knitting off and on for years but I still consider myself to be a novice. Fingers-crossed, with more practice my continental will shape up so I can ditch the American style. Over all I prefer continental because of speed, ease to switch from knitting/purling, and it feels more comfortable in my hands. :)

Comments

[dhae_knight_1]

Continental, all the way (of course, given the fact I'm European, that's kind of a given). I must say, though, that the American style doesn't tempt me. It looks slow and awkward, having to move the yarn, rather than just moving the needles.

I knit tightly, though, but I've found that it depends on the needles. Metal needles gives me the tightest knitting. Plastic and hardwood gives me a more relaxed gauge, and with bamboo I knit pretty losely. On metal needles I usually have to go down .5 cm to a full cm in needle-size to fit the gauge.

[debbiecakes]

I'll have to try a pair of metal needles. I've always used bamboo or plastic.