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

[archane]

I knit Continental. I was crocheting for years before I started learning to knit, and I was frustrated for months trying to learn American/English style knitting from my grandma. Everything felt wrong, and I just couldn't get it. It didn't make any sense to me. Then I came across a book which showed Continental, switched the yarn back to my left hand, and everything clicked.

I sometimes feel a bit silly, since I could work out how to knit "backwards," so that I can knit back and forth without turning the work, but it doesn't matter how many diagrams I follow or what videos I watch, I can't knit more than three or four stitches with the yarn in my right hand before everything seems to fall apart (and purling is out of the question).

[debbiecakes]

I crochet too and I know just what you mean! Initially, I tried learning how to knit with a book that taught the American style. Failed. Miserably. It wasn't until I learned to knit Continental out of a different book that I was able to go back and pick up the American style because at least I knew what a finished knit or a purl stitch looked like.