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

[ex_blackcat765]

I do American knitting. I kinda want to learn Continental since I've heard it's faster (and looking at these fair isle books I've got they seem to lean more towards it for holding your yarn?), but idk. :|a. If I could work through how awkward it'd feel to hold with my left hand (I'm right handed) then I could go for it. \o/

[dhae_knight_1]

For what it's worth, your left hand actually does very little. Your hand holds the needle and the yarn is wound over your left index-finger and down through your fingers however works for you. About the only thing you do move is a slight lift of your left index-finder to tighten the stitch, depending on how you knit, obviously. So... The right hand does pretty much all the work. :-)

[ex_blackcat765]

Oh! I was thinking it was something where you held the yarn in your left hand and worked with the needle in your left, too. (Don't ask how that works XD). I could do what you're describing though!