going continental

[arguchik]

i don't think i've ever done a knitting post before. i've been knitting for quite awhile. i have always knitted "english" or "american" style, but today i started teaching myself how to knit "continental" or "german" style, because "throwing" the yarn was starting to take a toll on my right hand and shoulder, and it's just an inefficient way to knit--lots of extra motion required to get the yarn from here to there when switching from knit to purl.

continental style is also described as "picking" because you hold the yarn in your left hand, "pick" it with the right needle, and pull it through the loop; rather than holding the yarn in your right hand and "throwing" it over the right needle as in american style knitting. it's challenging to re-train my hands, but so far it seems totally worth it. despite the fact that i'm still awkward and a little slow with the technique, my stitches seem more even and my tension (which governs how tight the stitches will turn out) is looser. best of all, it is easier on my hands. i tried doing this on my turbo needles last night, and it was a disaster. it made me very sad! i absolutely love these needles. i have accumulated a rather extensive collection over the years (hell, decades) since i first started knitting. they are nickel-plated brass circular (aka cable) needles, and they are lightning quick, seemingly frictionless, which is great when you're an experienced knitter. but suddenly i'm not anymore--my motions are clumsy like a novice--and the fast needles are too fast. LOL. i had to give up after a few minutes. so today i stopped at the weaving works in the u-district, and i bought a 16-inch #7 bamboo circular needle and a couple of balls of basic worsted-weight yarn just to experiment with. that did the trick--slowed things down with a little bit of friction.

i've got the basic knit and purl techniques down, and i've been experimenting with different ways of holding the yarn. none of them are quite right. and there is some controversy on the subject. (if you want to watch videos demonstrating the technique, here is a site that has demos showing the difference between american knitting and continental knitting, and here is a rather lengthy youtube demo.) ok...not controversy exactly, but disagreement. conflicting advice. diversity of technique. whatever you want to call it. (and this is just among the continental-style knitters. you should hear the debates between throwers vs. pickers.)

the technique shown on the first website (knittinghelp.com) worked great as long as i was just knitting or just purling, but as soon as i tried ribbing (i was doing a 1x1 rib, which means i was switching from knit to purl or purl to knit after each stitch), i couldn't keep the tension even. the yarn kept sagging off my left index finger when i went to purl, and if i successfully executed a purl stitch, the yarn between my finger and the needle was too long for the knit stitch to work right. the technique demonstrated by the youtube video is better, but it's still not quite right for me. the problem now is that the yarn is a little too tight all the time, and it untwists itself and makes a big nasty snarly thing at the bottom of my left hand. the hardest thing about this style of knitting, according to my very limited experience with it, is finding the right balance between tension (so that the yarn doesn't sag all over the place) and flow (so that it moves through your hand without getting too tight), and both of these things are completely determined by how you configure the yarn around your left fingers.

i suppose that's a metaphor for life. finding the perfect balance between tension and flow.

anyway, i'm going to keep fooling with the youtube video technique and see if i can get it to work for me. i probably just need practice.

ahhhh, knitting. ahhhh, humanity.

Comments

[xtingu]

I'm not a knitter (I'm knot a nitter?), so admittedly your post means nada to me.

But I just wanted to say that "going continental" sounds dirty, and I am snickering like a 5th grader. :-)

[alice-at-night.livejournal.com]

you just need practice. I always knit german style - american always seemed way too frenetic. Plus, Mom is german and that's who taught me. I'd tell you how I hold the yarn, but I can't remember. You'll figure it out.

Not that I knit much - and mostly variations on rectangles. Bootcover, cuffs, scarfs. I'm (very slowly) knitting this as of late but in burgundy red instead of green http://pieknits.com/RopesAndLaddersScarf.pdf