Monday, January 30, 2006

Knitting Polls

As mentioned in a previous post, I will be taking a class from Nancy Wiseman on Continental Knitting in early March.

Since I, like most Americans, learned the "English" style of knitting, I am curious as to how long it will take me to break old habits and feel comfortable knitting "Continental".

I have therefore come up with a couple of polls that I hope anyone stopping by here will be willing to answer. Your responses will remain anonymous.

And so, without further ado, here are the polls:

*** POLLS CLOSED - POLLS REMOVED ***

And for clarification purposes, here are my definitions of the terms used in these polls:

"Continental"-style knitting: carrying the working yarn in the left hand and "picking" it with the right needle to pull it through the loop on the left needle.

"English"-style knitting: carrying the working yarn in the right hand and "throwing" it over the right needle to pull it through the loop on the left needle.


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*** View poll results here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can tell me what I am -- I don't think I'm English or Continental! I'm left-handed and I hold the "working needles" (the one that starts empty) in my left hand. The needle with all the stitches is in my right hand. I keep the yarn threaded through the fingers of my right hand and loop it around the working needle with my right hand.

Am I anything or just another weird lefty???

LOL.

Tammy

Moxie said...

Has anybody noticed all the sex ads that are on the voting results page??? :)

Anyways... I knit English, I've tried Continental and I can do it, but not comfortably. I don't see a speed difference at all. It's funny though, in the knitting group I used to go to, I was the only right-handed knitter out of about 12 women! Go figure.

Tammy: You use the Tammy method of knitting. There is no right or wrong way... if it works for you, go for it! :)

Bess said...

Howdy!

I knit English for my whole life. I didn't even know there was a continental way till I watched the Elizabeth Zimmermann videos. She advocated Her way of knitting but I saw no point in changing when I was perfectly happy with my own.

Then, in the next video series she did with her daughter I fell in love with Meg's beautiful hands. I determined to learn continental and mastered the knit in one sweater. The purl took a little longer but I finally learned that too. What a lot of work that continental purl stitch is.

I had never had any trouble when picking up dropped stitches or replacing ripped pieces on the needles with knitting through the back if the stitch was aligned up wrong. I even taught someone who had trouble with lopsided knitting because her purls were scooped and lined up the knit stitch backwards how to see what was going on and how to correct it without having to change her technique.

I didn't know that had a name till I met Annie Modesette. She calls it Combination knitting and others call it Eastern Cross. Anyway, I switched to that one summer before last and that's my preferred style of knitting.

I'm really glad, though, I know how to knit all three ways, because each one has advantages that I use when they work best.

interesting poll.