My continental knitting is a little tighter than my English ~ but, my continental and english styles of knitting are a little different than the way Amy demonstrates in her video. [I switched from continental to english when I was in Brownies because I remember thinking it was modern - go figure!]
Carolyn
FWIWā¦I have the opposite problemā¦I learned continental, and I can knit English if I absolutely have to, but itās sooo loose and I have no control. :shrug: Maybe you just have better control with the method you learned first? :mrgreen:
I would think that would be the case, Julie. Considering that the english method is considered to be the easiest (IMHO at least) to learn, most people pick that one up first, but on the other hand, those that picked up Continental first, find it difficult to do English.
I tried English, knit that way for a week. One week. Then, I tried Continental, and thatās what Iāve stuck with. So, you could say that I really learned the Continental, but then I learned English just for the heck of it. :shrug:
I was a crocheter many years before learning to knit and since when
you crochet you hold the yarn in your left hand it was the most
natural thing to knit continental. When I try english my brain sends
the message to my right hand but it sits there not understanding and decides to do itās own flippy moves! 
Maybe if you try crocheting, just long chains if you donāt like crochet
otherwise, it would get you used to the feel of the yarn on your
left hand.
gargoylelib
Absolutely, the method you learned first and longest will feel easiest. Remember Mason when you learned to knit you probably had problems with tension? You might have had to pinch the wool between thumb and first finger because you couldnāt tension it: it would either run through your fingers and you had no control, or youād wrap it around your fingers extra times to get more control and it would stick and not run free. Until your right hand got better at controlling the wool between fingersā¦ it will take just as long for your left hand to learn this as it did your right hand. Maybe a bit longer.
I knit English for a quite while before switching. I love being able to do both for stranded colourwork, and still do a stitch English now and then: especially at the start of rows, or when doing a decrease. I find it difficult to fluidly āpickā a stitch when knitting through 2 stitches, as in a k2tog, so I do keep the wool in my left hand as usual, but use my right forefinger to hook things around/keep the wool in place around the right needle.
I was a tight knitter in English, and I think I am a bit looser in Continental. Also, regardless of being tight or loose (ahem), I think tension is more [I]consistent[/I] in Conti (maybe just me, maybe for many).
Remember the initial awkwardness of Conti if you learned English is no more awkward than the initial awkwardness of knitting English as a beginner.
Check out the video Amy links to for purling, I think itās described as āan interesting take on purling by a Finnish knitterā or something. I simply could not get the hang of using the left fingers to push the wool down and this way seems MUCH more efficient and fast to me. It looks awkward but I have osteoarthritis and experience no extra pain in my wrists from doing lots of purling this way (or a similar way).
I also find it much easier to āpickā if I use my right pointer finger to hold the last-knitted stitch on the right needle in place, or push it down the needle very slightly: it kind of stretches the stitch open so the right needle can pop right in and pick out the strand.
Itās also no extra effort to do single ribbing/seed stitch in Conti, where English-style ribbing/seed stitch requires twice the work: for every k or p, you have to move the wool from front to back or v.v., which is just as much work as the actual k or p. I think after just a few minutes practising in Conti, you will already be able to do ribbing faster than in English.
Find a way to hold the yarn that works for you. About the only deviation I see between my knitting and the way Amy does it in the video is that I warp the yarn twice (loosely) around my left index finger for tension. I just canāt do it around my pinkie like Amy shows in the video. I totally 
the way she shows how to purl. Purls were my arch nemesis when I was trying to learn to knit English, now I find them as easy to do as the knit stitch.
I really want to do some stranded color work, so if I want to do that Iāll have to get better at English knitting so I can carry the yarn in both hands.
Joe
Ditto to what Gargoylelib said. I wrap my yarn the same way, whether Iām crocheting or knitting continental. Since itās been 30 years since I learned to crochet, I canāt remember how I finally got the hang of it. But I do remember a whole stack of wonky dishcloths! (Iām sure theyāre still at my parents house somewhereā¦) :lol:
Anyhow, continental knitting isnāt for everybody. Lots of people create lovely knits who never do it continental style. Knit the way you enjoy knitting!
I can [I]only [/I]knit continental - english feels ā¦ cumbersome, I guess. But I have had to play around a bit with holding the yarn to get the right tension/speed combo. Letās see if I can be of any help here ā¦
If Iām looking at the palm of my left hand, I loop the yarn over then around my pinky, over the outside of my other fingers and over and down over my index finger so I can do the quick down movement for purling. However, and this might be the only helpful bit here - when the yarn is a fast moving one, I bring the yarn around my pinky, [I]over[/I] my ring finger, [I]under[/I] my middle, and [I]over[/I] again on my index. Gives me more control that way.
Hope that helped!
Sounds like I may just have to experiment with different ways of holding the yarn until I find one that works best for me.
It most likely is as suggested, having a lot to do with which style one learns first.
Iāll attempt to do my next project conti style as I would like to be able to do both.
There are hundreds of ways you could wrap the wool: how many fingers wrapped around, which ones, in which directions, one of them will give you a comfortable tension. I have been known to change to a grip with a far looser hold when working with a sticky wool. Donāt be afraid to change your grip every 5 minutes if you find one you like better: eventually youāll figure out your favourite.
I hold my yarn the way threesmom does, except that most of the time, I donāt wrap it around my pinky. I just have it coming over my ring finger, under my middle finger, and over my index finger. Let me post a picture of how I hold my yarn.
Mason, check out combination knitting - http://anniemodesitt.com/knit.html - Thatās how I do it, too awkward to have the index finger sticking up like Conti shows. I just have my yarn over the first finger and hold it with my other fingers curled around it, and scoop the stitch like she shows. Also know that this style has you knitting through the back loop, which is actually the forward leg on the needle to counter the purl stitches which are also scooped and end up being wrapped the wrong way.
I find my tension is far more even with Continental than it ever was with the Throw method.
Donāt give up. It took me 3 weeks to get to a āgoodā place. You didnāt learn to knit overnight, so you canāt expect to relearn to knit in any less time
My finger doesnāt stick up at allā¦ I should make a videoā¦ hmmā¦
Iāll make a video, too. Hey, that would be a good idea if we all made videos of our knitting styles, to help the beginning knitters that join!
I find my continantal knitting is tighter than english style ( which I never use) I always do a double wrap over the index finger as if I were crocheting, my tension always seems to come out to the guage suggested on the pattern. I kind of pivot the finger with the yarn and then scoop it up with the right hand needle. On the purl side I wrap the yarn over the left needle and scoop with the rightneedle. I usually have all my fingers grasping the needles except for that 1 left hand index finger which is up nd bent . hope I havenāt confused you too much t needle.
Iām a continental knitter and I actually having the problem of kniting too tight. When I attempted English, it seemed really awkward and my needles slid right out of my work. I wrap the yarn around my pinky and then my middle finger and even have indentations where the yarn usually sits because I hold the yarn so tightly!
Continental method works for me. Except for the pinkie wrap, I knit just like Amy.
I also have a tendency to knit (and crochet) tight. For some reason, my tension gets tighter and tighter as I work. Getting used to the pattern stitch allows me to go faster ā¦ maybe? :shrug:
I consciously have to tell myself to relax. Sometimes, I even switch to bigger needles (or hook).
I hold my yarn like contiknitter except it gets wrapped around my pinky twice. My continental is more even than my english. I donāt think I ever learned to wrap the yarn and just held it between my thumb and forefinger and there was no tensioning. Iām really glad I taught myself continental. Iām a much happier knitter. Things tend to look better than my work done english. However, I canāt say I knit faster one way or the other.
My continental tension is way looser than my english tension. When I knit english I usually have to go up one needle size to get gauge. When I knit continental I have to go down two needle sizes. The thing about gauge though is that as long as its predictable its generally fine. In fact, I find that looser knitting makes stuff like cabling and knitting multiple stitches into one stitch a lot easier to do. Knitting continental is like anything else though, you have to stick with it. It took a while but I knit equally well with both methods. But it did take a while. You probably donāt want to do your first sweater knitting continental cause your gauge is going to be all over the place.