Last night, while reading one of my knitting books, I noticed that instead of making my knit stitches in the front leg of the previous stitch, I make them into the back loop. In other words, I make what is called a twisted knit stitch where I should be making regular ones. I’ve already finished two sweaters this way and am in the middle of making knitty’s Cleo top right now, all wrong :wall:.
What exactly is the difference in how the finished stitches look, depending on whether they’re twisted or not? How can this influence a pattern?
I did that for a bit on a blanket and then I switched and it looked the same except tighter. The biggest difference was how my YOs looked. In the regular stitches they make a ‘hole’ in the fabric and in the twisted stitches there seemed to be a loose piece.
Oh, that’s why my lace didn’t look really lacey…thank you!!!
if you tried to do fancy rib patterns, like the ears of wheat one, you would also notice that something was horribly terribly wrong.
[SIZE=1]I did that for a whole year until I found the videos here, so you’re not alone![/SIZE]
Also, the tension with twisted stitches makes it nearly impossible to do cables & other fancy stitches. :?
If you are comfortable knitting through the back loop, you can continue doing so by wrapping your purl stitches [B]under[/B] the needle, thus forming your stitches in a way where, on the right side row, they are already formed where you can knit them through the back loop quite easily. If you don’t understand that way of purling, Amy has a video HERE
You’re absolutely right! I think that’s what Amy called combined purl. That’s what i do when i’m not knitting with patterns (that’s how i learned to knit). And then if you want to purl a knit stitch (like in seed stitch), you purl through the back loop to make look ok and not twisted.
:whoosh: 
Don’t feel bad! I used to combination knit and I didn’t know there was anything different about it. As I watched other knitters knit, I adapted my knit stitch to the front of the loop but it never occurred to me that I was still purling like I did when I knit through the back of the loop.
Then I took a class at my LYS and was told by the instructor that I was purling wrong! I had been purling like that for years and I was devastated. I practiced and practiced and now I knit continental but it wasn’t until I found this site that I realized I had been combination knitting, not knitting WRONG as I had been led to believe by the well meaning instructor.
I do knit straight continental now, just like the Amy’s videos – I had to adapt my purl stitch to match my knit or else go back to combination knitting but then what do you do with all those patterns that require you to knit through the back of the loop in order to twist the stitches differently from the rest, like the famous Clapotis?
Oh well! The upside is that my gauge comes out much better when I knit continental as opposed to combined so I guess I’ll stick with what works.
Happy knitting to all, however it suits you!
Susan
I knit wrong for a year…and halfway through a pair of pants for my boy I accidentally poked the needle through the front loop and :shock: - it dawned on me what I should have been doing :rofling:
Don’t feel bad…this is where we all come to learn. 
I picked up stitches on 6 booga bag-type projects and thought that picking up stitches was the worst, most horrible thing you ever have to do in knitting…until the 7th bag, when I realized I was doing it totally wrong, and when you do it right, its not really that hard!
I think I knit just like that for a lot longer - but I actually mistakenly thought it was right after thinking I was doing something wrong … :lol: when I picked up needles again after YEARS, I knit tbl, but somehow wrapped it right, and somehow my purls were okay. When I switched to the front, I still wrapped my old way, which was wrong … twisted stiches. A few months ago, I was looking at Knit Fixes or some similar book, and was like “I’m twisting … no wonder my yo are all wonky!!” It’s amazing how much faster I knit now too!
I’m glad I could help!
That happend to me too! I had been knitting twisted stitches untill some mean lady at a yarn store set me right ^_^;;
You are definitely not alone!! I purled wrong for 4-5 years. I was self taught and for whatever reason I wrapped my yarn in the combination method only I didn’t compensate on the knit side. I was watching knitty gritty one day and noticed the guest was purling differently than I did and looked it up on this site to see who was wrong. It took me awhile to get used to purling “correctly” but now it is not a problem. I can definitely see an improvement in the look of my FOs now!!
I’m amazed by everybody who had the exact experience I did! I did combination knitting until just a few weeks ago when I realized I was doing it “wrong” and asked about it on this forum. It was comforting to know that it was just different, not wrong. I’ll probably still knit that way for some things.
By the way, what do you do about people who snatch your knitting away from you to show you “a better way” to hold your yarn? I don’t hold it in the most orthodox way, but it works for me. Does it really matter that much if my stuff is even-looking and neat?