Continental Knitting

#1

I was taught by my aunt (who was left-handed) to knit left-handed…until recently I thought it was the wrong way…I’ve tried the “correct” way (English) several times and find it to be much, much slower. It wasn’t until recently that I found out that left-handed knitting had a name and it was not necessarily the wrong way…

I had been continental knitting for some time and came to realize that my knit stitches were always on a slant…I had a friend, who was also taught by my aunt, who informed me I needed to knit in the back of the stitch on the knit rows…which worked well for straightening out my stitches. All was fine until I recently tried knitting socks in the round…when knitting in the round my stitches now have a slant again…Does anyone know how to correct this problem?

Thanks

#2

Hi Barbara,

The technique you are using sounds like “combined knitting” aka “eastern uncrossed knitting” (Amy has videos on “combined knitting”). It’s a style that is apparently the norm in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and central Asia.

When you knit this way, your stitches end up mounted the way you described.

Re knitting in the round using this style of knitting: the other day I came across a website which has a video about eastern uncrossed knitting in the round:

http://www.icanspin.com/toc.htm

You have to scroll to the bottom of that webpage, and click on the link to “Eastern Uncrossed Knitting - one video
learn “in the round” technique for Eastern Uncrossed Knitting
same page as Socks on Two Circulars”.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to watch the video because my computer freezes up everytime I try to download the quicktime plugin, so all I have been able to do is read the information there.

I hope the link works for you! If not, I know there are other combined knitters on this board who may be able to give you advice.

#3

Hi again Barbara,

Forget the webpage link I gave. I finally got it working this morning it’s doesn’t look very clear.

As usual, Amy and her brilliant videos come to the rescue!!! Barbara, have a look at Amy’s webpage here:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/knit.php

Go to the last video on “Combined Knitting”. In the last part she is showing you how to knit in the round to get the stitches re-mounted for your needle everytime you need to! It’s a great video!!! (Amy is a legend!!!)

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley: