Clearing up some mysteries
At the Whistlestop this past weekend I had occasion to really watch someone knitting continental. The knitter in this case was a relatively new knitter who was knitting in the Eastern Uncrossed continental style.
Since I'm perfectly comfortable with Eastern Uncrossed, I was able to confirm that the combination of knitting into the back of the stitch and scooping when she purled would "correct" the twist put on the stitch from knitting into the back of the stitch.
What struck me most is just how simple continental knitting is. I've always been lead to believe that it so foreign/different -- it really isn't. The major difference as I see it is that the needle does more of the work in forming the stitch. I've been playing with it a bit off and on ever since Sunday and while it still isn't as comfortable as my usual throwing styles, it's something I'm planning to add to the mix.
One thing that watching this particular knitter clarified in my mind is that those knitters who have told me that my insistence that using the generic YO for different actions is wrong headed didn't apply to them because they knit continental were just out of touch with how they were actually forming the stitches.
Also at the Whistlestop, there was a successful bamboo hand off. Two cones came with and only one came home. The girlie girl water bottle cosy got a good reception but it came home this time so I can finish writing up the pattern. I'd better get cracking on that to make sure it and the loaner headlamp get delivered before the 3-day walk. My Cleve-burg sojourn means I'll miss more than October's Knitnite and other local knitting events slated for the first week of October.
Speaking of Knitnite, while some folks were at the Sally Melville class I stopped off at Mitsuwa and did myself a bit of a mischief in the book store. Three Japanese books on crochet came home with me. I'm fairly new to crochet, having been shamed into learning at the hotel bar during Stitches West a few years back, but I'm a total believer that Japanese crochet materials are far superiour to English language ones and let even relative novices achieve advanced results quickly.
More on those in a later post but don't be shocked if wire and beads are also part of the mix.
Since I'm perfectly comfortable with Eastern Uncrossed, I was able to confirm that the combination of knitting into the back of the stitch and scooping when she purled would "correct" the twist put on the stitch from knitting into the back of the stitch.
What struck me most is just how simple continental knitting is. I've always been lead to believe that it so foreign/different -- it really isn't. The major difference as I see it is that the needle does more of the work in forming the stitch. I've been playing with it a bit off and on ever since Sunday and while it still isn't as comfortable as my usual throwing styles, it's something I'm planning to add to the mix.
One thing that watching this particular knitter clarified in my mind is that those knitters who have told me that my insistence that using the generic YO for different actions is wrong headed didn't apply to them because they knit continental were just out of touch with how they were actually forming the stitches.
Also at the Whistlestop, there was a successful bamboo hand off. Two cones came with and only one came home. The girlie girl water bottle cosy got a good reception but it came home this time so I can finish writing up the pattern. I'd better get cracking on that to make sure it and the loaner headlamp get delivered before the 3-day walk. My Cleve-burg sojourn means I'll miss more than October's Knitnite and other local knitting events slated for the first week of October.
Speaking of Knitnite, while some folks were at the Sally Melville class I stopped off at Mitsuwa and did myself a bit of a mischief in the book store. Three Japanese books on crochet came home with me. I'm fairly new to crochet, having been shamed into learning at the hotel bar during Stitches West a few years back, but I'm a total believer that Japanese crochet materials are far superiour to English language ones and let even relative novices achieve advanced results quickly.
More on those in a later post but don't be shocked if wire and beads are also part of the mix.
posted by walkaboutknitter at
08:55
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