Fair isle/stranding in the round using continental and english method

How-to Questions
1

Hi,

I’m knitting a hat using circular needles and trying to use Fair isle pattern by holding one color yarn in continental and other in english method.

I’m seeing that with this method, the leading edge of the knit comes out different. For english it is in the front and continental it is in the back. Also, it makes the stitches too tight.

How can I make the leading edges to be in same side? also, does it matter for the pattern where the leading edge is?

Thanks.
Gayatri

2

By leading edge do you mean that the stitch is seated on the needle differently for the English and Continental? If that is what you mean, it shouldn’t. Watch the video on this site about how to knit Continental. Maybe you aren’t doing the Continental correctly. The stitches should all look exactly the same, it sounds like you may be twisting stitches. That would explain why they are tight.

3

Thanks for the quick reply!

I certainly am twisting the stitch. I viewed the continental knitting video again and at one point the instruction says that if you are doing combined knitting you have to knit in the back loop (for continental).

Is that what I’m supposed to do? i.e knit in the back.

-Gayatri

4

Definitions get a bit confusing. If you are doing typical Continental knitting it is really exactly like English knitting in the way the stitches are wrapped (when you work in the Continental style you don’t usually really wrap, but the end result of what you do it just like what you do when you wrap working in regular English knitting) and the way the stitches end up on the needle. In English knitting you never need to knit into the back of the stitches (unless you are trying to twist stitches), and with Continental knitting it is exactly the same as the English.

Combined knitting is not the same as Continental, it wraps the stitches the opposite way on the purls and requires you to knit into the back loops when you are knitting. But Combined knitting doesn’t work in the round. If you knit in the back on the knit stitches in the round it will twist all your stitches because you never have the purl to even things out. (People who use Combined knitting have to learn to use several techniques and when to use what so as not to twist the stitches.)

You don’t want to use Combined knitting, but Continental for the Fair Isle in each hand. This KnittingHelp site has videos of how to knit in the Continental style and that should put you on the right track. Be sure that what you are getting has the stitches all looking the same (and sitting on the needle the same way) whether you did them English or Continental, if they are not you are not finding the right videos.

5

Thank you so much for the detailed response!
I reviewed the video again and the stitches are coming right now.

:woohoo:

-Gayatri

6

Thanks for the response. I’m glad it is working now.

7

I am a right handed knitter and have recently done a fair amount of stranded knitting. I hold the background, or darker color in my right hand and the lighter or contrast color in my left. My stitches are identical, there is no twisting, and I do not knit through the back loop for the left hand.

The only problem I have experienced is maintaining the same tension in each hand.

8

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As other posts have addressed, it isn’t Continental vs. English style that is twisting your stitches, it is in the direction you wrap your yarn. It is natural for the left hand to move in a mirror image or your right hand. That is why hot and cold water taps turn in opposite directions (in most cases). :think:

I am guessing that you (naturally) wrapped the yarn with your left hand in the opposite direction that your right hand moved and that gave you twisted stitches.

Forget the tired old rhyme of ‘Lefty loosy, right tighty’ just what is moving left or right? It all depends on if you are looking at the top or bottom of what is rotating.

Instead think of a clock, with a center and the hands that move (called an analog clock face and not a digital clock) :roll:

The clock face has a center around which the hand move in a clock-wise direction. As the second hand passes 12 it is moving “righty tighty” but if you watch as it passes the 6 it is moving “lefty-loosy?” :doh:

Knitting wraps are counter clockwise* around the point of the needle, unless you practice the style of combined knitting. (or when you crochet).

*(To the best of my understanding, UK and ‘other world’ readers may replace “counter clockwise” with “anti-clockwise.”) :wink:

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