Irish Cottage Knitting

Does anyone know of a website or book that demonstrates the technique of Irish cottage knitting also known as irish production knitting? It is a very fast knitting technique.
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
David. :XX:

Never heard of it, but I’ll bump this up…

Never heard of it, but I am VERY intrigued. So, someone, speak up!

I think this technique is also known as shadow knitting or domino knitting…

here’s some info :XX:

http://www.viv.dk/English/default.htm

Hm, this is the first time I heard about it. After some googling, this is what I understand about it, and this is a pattern book.
Am I correct?

WOw how beautiful :inlove: :inlove: :inlove:

Thanks to everyone for their advice/websites. domino or shadow knitting kind of falls under modular knitting.
Irish cottage/production knitting is a way of knitting (actually how you hold the need and loop the yarn --i know the yarn is held in the left hand) to enable you to knit up to 2000 stitches a minute. (!!!)…i found it hard to believe.(!!!_
Stephanie Pearl McPhee (author of women who knit too much) uses this technique or one very similar to it…but i’ve never seen her do it and I can’t find anyone or any publication that explains the technique.
Let’s keep looking.
thanks again!!!
David.

I just found this forum entry at this weblink:
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2004/03/18/overcautious.html

My aunt, who knits very speedily, accurately, uniformly, and efficiently, props the right-hand needle (straight needles only) in her lap so that it sticks up vertically and holds the left needle in her left hand like a normal person. The left needle moves, the right one does not. She carries the yarn in her right hand, which also sort of steadies the right needle without actually HOLDING it.

I have never seen anyone else knit like my aunt, with the propped needle. When she KIPped, people would ask about why she was knitting that way, that they’d never seen anyone else do that, blah blah blah. So, when I went to learn to knit, I used circulars (nothing to prop) so that I’d have to learn the ‘one in each hand’ method like “normal” people so that nobody would stare. That worked. I can do the “normal” people method, especially on circulars and teeny bamboo sock needles.

Only… the propping thing is amazingly fast. I tried it, you know, to see what it was like. It’s really fast. Easy. I don’t have to pay as much attention to it.

So. This ‘cottage knitting’ thing. Sounds like propped needle knitting to me. Other people do this? It’s not necessarily some sort of shameful thing to only do at home where other people can’t stare at you?

Posted by: teep at March 19, 2004 11:10 AM

Isn’t that called the English knitting method? Wow, I would love to knit 2000 stitiches a mintute !!! I would pay $500 / hour to learn that.

I just looked at the blog that carolina referred to, and it says this "So, looks like it’s mostly cottage knitters (those who tuck a needle under an arm) "

So what I think is that it is the way that I started to knit…you prop a needle under your arm (prob left, if you are rightie) and then knit against it, again what carolina was saying!! (want to give credit to who says what)

HTH

OK, so i am looking at what I posted earlier, and I realized it sounds so DUMB! I could have saved myself so much grief if i wouldh ave just said ditto!!

Ah, well, that’s life, I suppose.

ok…now this is getting interesting.
I think that we are getting closer to what I’ve heard so much about.
i know that it involves holding the one needle close to your body and holding it still and doing most of the work with the other needle.

Here is a link to ponder.
Check out the way the lady is holding her needle and the curious contraption with which she’s knitting…would love to see this in action.
http://www.daelnet.co.uk/features/knitting/history3.htm

any thoughts??
David

I found it.
it’s called LEVER knitting…and here’s the url…it’s not irish after all but rather scottish or cornish…this is wonderous strange.

www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/leverstyle.shtm

ah, so it sounds like slightly modified english knitting.

But the link shows the lady holds the yarn on her right hand :??

bump

:thinking:

Anyone find anything else on this?

I’ve seen knitters use the lever method on Knitty Gritty, some even holding the yarn in the left hand (the motion ends up being the same in a strange sort of way). I tried for an hour to figure it out–rewinding, pausing, etc. as I tried to mimic the movement–but just couldn’t do it. I know I’m missing something…

My knitting is painfully slow–I’d really like to figure this out!

I just finished watching Primetime about the first person with a face transplant. First segment of the show, she was knitting just like you guys are describing. I kept rewinding trying to get a better idea of how she was doing it. Basically, there was a needle under her arm that was stationary and she moved the other needle and wrapped her yarn around.

Too funny that the knitting that caught my attention, not that the lady was missing 1/2 her face. :shock: I later got into the actual transplant part, probably because there wasn’t anymore knitting to distract me.

That shouldn’t be funny, but it is…only a knitter would watch tv like that! :rofling: I had to rewind 10 minutes of a Miss Marple mystery yesterday for the same reason. I was trying to figure out how she was knitting (she was flying with those needles!) and completely missed the dialogue! Actually, it happened twice. The third time, I dropped my head and just listened…:roflhard: :roflhard:

I should have read thru this before I posted. I am about six years late to the party. The offer still stands, I can and will teach Irish Cottage style.

The only other thing I would mention is that yes, when knitting on straight needles, Stephanie Pearl McPhee does indeed do “pit” knitting in which the working needle is held under her right arm, freeing up her right hands to form stitches, tension yarn, etc. It gets to become “Irish Cottage Knitting” when you add in the special tensioning method she teaches to feed the yarn into new stitches with the ring finger on her right hand–leaving her “smart” fingers free for other jobs, like knitting cable stitches without a cable needle, etc. And, it become more like Yorkshire knitting of the Dales region of England when you add a knitting sheath and knit English Lever style. Then you add in the sped up version called swaving, and you’ve got some pretty darned fast knitting going on. But looking through these posts, I have to say, oh, for Pete’s sake. No one, no way, ever knit 2000 stitches per minute. I have heard and seen written reference to the Terrible Knitters of Dent knitting at somewhere around 200 stitches per minute, but since the current world champ knits only about 160 stitches in a three minute timing speed test, I think there was either a very serious miscount of stitches, or the watch or clock used for timing was very badly damaged. I have been knitting these styles for nearly 60 years, and the best I can manage is about 70 stitches per minute. This works out for me to be about half a crew sock a night while watching TV. If I make a short ribbed cuff and the rest of the sock in stockinette, I could probably crank out a whole sock a night, but I like to wear crew socks with long ribbed cuffs, and ribbing just takes longer, no matter what technique you knit it with.

Late or not, your informative comments are welcome.