#continental knitting

[themonsternotthescientist]

My hot take as a knitter is that people who think English knitting is absolutely horrible and painfully slow are just really bad at English knitting

[presidentdragon]

forever baffling to me that the style of knitting I use (continental) is NOT the most widely used. what do you mean english is the most often taught to novices because it's "easier" how is taking your hand OFF the needle to throw the yarn easier???? is it bc I learned knitting and crochet at the same time as a kid and always held the yarn in my left hand??

the movements of continental knitting are so. Elegant. Minimalist. Efficient. 1-2 stitches a second easy.

[sidewalksofthesky]

I have always knit holding my yarn in my right hand (English style) but I'm wanting to try out holding it in my left hand (Continental style) because it might be gentler on my wrists.

I've been having to take very long crafting breaks because I start to have carpal tunnel issues over the last year and a half.

It's fascinating to me how the very fluid motion of wrapping the yarn around my right hand to tension it falls apart and becomes strange when I try to mirror it to my left hand. Feels like I've never held yarn before in my life.

I am doing a garter stitch square to practice.

I don't care about one method or another being faster. Though if I ever make a fair isle project being able to hold one color in each hand would be neat.

[salvadoerena]

I cannot for the life of me figure out if im knitting Continental or English or some self-taught abominable combination of the two. Bls help me.

[andimissmylovergirl]

soooo nobody told me Continental knitting is that hard 😭

[griffin1023]

Sloooowly figuring out continental knitting, and I have no idea if I'm getting the knit stitch twisted correctly - is the yarn supposed to wrap under to over or over to under? Does it matter? I need a gif I can stare at on repeat 😭

[thecozycuttlefish]

I tried 5 different knitting styles. I still hate English style.

Trying Five Different Knitting Styles - Finding The Best Method

Follow along as I conduct a yarn experiment to try five different knitting styles and find out what works for me and what doesn't.

[bluebellbluish]

So I aggressively dislike purling, and that dislike has led me to learn how to knit in reverse. I couldn’t find much about knitting in reverse continental (or left-handed continental, I suppose) so I thought I’d share how I do it just in case anyone also knits continental and would dearly, dearly like to do anything in the world except purl.

Of course, this would only work if you would turn your work — if you have alternating knit/purl stitches in your pattern (such as ribbing) you’d still have to purl. But this is super useful for working flat or short rows!!

Photos below the fold. :)

I start by switching the yarn to my right hand. I’m sure however you naturally hold your yarn would work fine, but in case you need some help getting tension, this is how I hold it:

2. I then insert my left knitting needle like I would when knitting through the back loop.

3. The way the yarn is wrapped around the needle matters. When knitting in reverse, you need to hook the yarn so that it goes counter-clockwise around the needle. The movement is very similar to norwegian purling, and is easiest to do if you don’t have a lot of yarn between your finger and the needle (at least for me). Forgive the odd finger positions, I didn’t have a tripod and was having to take these photos one-handed 😅 The second photo shows how I position the needle as I pull it through to keep it from slipping (as best as I could one-handed, anyway).

4. To maintain tension and keep stitches even, I always bring the needle through the front and keep the yarn gently tightened (not cranked tight, or anything, but to measure out the stitch) and I do the same here before pulling the stitch off the needle. Hopefully this helps you keep your tension as you go in reverse too :)

I am sure this explanation could be so much better but I hope it helps someone looking to do something similar! :) It may not work very well if you’re not ambidextrous or left-handed, and if so, the method of holding the yarn in your left hand and manually wrapping it around the needle each time may work better for you — I’ve seen tutorials of that floating around, if you’d prefer to try that!

If you wrap your yarn clockwise (which is arguably easier) your stitches will be twisted, just as an FYI. Wrapping it counter-clockwise results in regular, untwisted stitches:

I hope this helped! 🩵