I have recently joined a local knitting group. One of the ladies is left handed and says that she has to rewrite all of the patterns since she knits backwards.
I am also left handed but learned to knit right handed since my grandmother showed me how to crochet right handed and it just seemed natural. Anyway, if I decide to begin knitting left handed, would I have to rewrite the patterns?
Wouldn’t everything just be on the other side? Is this a big deal? Does it matter which side the buttons are on?
Also, I knit continental (with my right hand) when I switch to left hand will I need to learn the throw method? I thought I read somewhere on here that each was easier for one or the other hand.
There’s two ways of being lefthanded in knitting - simply holding your yarn in your left hand which is continental and many right handers work that way. Throwing is English style and not exclusively righthanded. The sts are on the L needle and you work them off to an empty R needle. True left handed knitting you can hold your yarn in either hand I think but you knit the sts from the R needle to the empty left needle, so it is the reverse. The only thing you need to reversed in patterns is the decs - ssk would be a R leaning one and k2tog a L leaning one. You can put your buttonholes on the ‘correct’ side, you’d just do it on the front edge of the other piece.
Check videos for knitting backwards, which a lot of people do instead of turning their work. You can try it out, but if you’re okay with how you knit, why change?