I’ve been knitting for about a year but unfortunately I’m self taught and didn’t learn the correct technique for holding my yarn. What I’ve been doing is wrapping it around my right ring finger before putting over my index dinger, and using my right thumb to grasp it every time I throw the yarn around the needle. This really slows me down, so I’ve decided I must learn how to wrap the yarn around my pinky so that I can just hold my index finger in the air with the yarn going over it and toss it aroun the tip of the needle without having to grasp the yarn with my thumb. So far after 2 days of trying I’m not able to do it. I just can’t get enough tension on the yarn. It just gets too loose and I have to use my thumb again. I tried wrapping it around my pinky twice, but then there was too much tension. I also tried using my ring finger, but again, no luck. I’ve studied the pictures on the web and in my instruction books, and have tried to copy the same technique, but I can’t get tension on the yarn, because even when I press my fingers together, there is a gap, and that’s where the yarn sits.
I hope I’m explaining myself clearly enough for somebody to help me out! Thanks in advance.
Well as far as I know, and others may correct me on this, there really isn’t a correct way. For example, I don’t wrap the yarn, except up around my index finger, then I just hold the yarn against the work. you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head, though by saying you just need to find a way for the right tension.
I guess I really do it wrong then because it isn’t wrapped around any of my digits and I suppose I hold my needles wrong too (the only needle I hold up is the left, the right points straight up most of the time while I work to get the stitch on it). But both of these seem to work for me. And I too was self taught, no one showed me anything just picked up some how to printed pdf files. In fact, my mother was telling me that I was doing it all wrong but I have completed almost 10 projects in the last year and she finally gave up on the one she started last fall saying that she just couldn’t keep her straight where she was supposed to be stitching (and she was taught a long time ago how to knit). When I am knitting in public people kind of look at me as though I were some backward child and get this kind of sympathetic look on their faces until they actually pay attention to how fast I can go with my method. I have tried knitting the way they show on Knitty Gritty (on DIYnetwork on time warner cable) but I feel real clumsy with the needles when I do that and end up making a mess of my work. So, it might not be correct but it gets the job done. LOL!!
nsavage, one of the beautiful things about knitting is that there isn’t a “right way” or “wrong way” to do it, unless you’re knitting from a sweater pattern and end up with a sock. Just play around with the yarn until you find a way that’s comfortable for you. Everyone holds their yarn a bit differently. For example, my grandmother, cousin, and I all knit WAY differently from each other.
I don’t wrap the yarn around a finger either, I thread it through my fingers and that seems to work. When I try knitting continental, I can’t wrap or thread it at all, it’s much too tight, so I loop it over my index finger and hold it with the rest of the fingers.
Thanks for your replis! I guess there are a lot of us who don’t knit “right.” But what slows me down is not having my index finger hovering constantly in the air. My method causes me to hold the needle with my index, and pick up my index and grasp the yarn with my thumb to throw the yarn. On the rare occasions I can get the tension good enough to do it the “right” way, I knit so much faster! But then I lose the tension and the yarn goes limp :grrr:
I wrap my yarn around my three fingers with the pointer in the air to wrap the stitches. I kind of bring the yarn up between my pointer and middle finger, it goes over the top of my other three fingers, around the outside of my pinky and then back under and back up between my first two fingers again. Then it goes over the top of my pointer. I’m sure this makes absolutely no sense in writing. I can post a pic when I get home if you need me to.
I don’t believe there’s a true right' orwrong’ way to hold yarn. Whatever is comfortable and works for you. Experiment with different arrangements and see if one works better or is more comfortable.
I started the wrong way too, but I re-taught myself.
I know they say there is no wrong way, and that’s fine. : ) However I was concerned that I’d have more soreness or worse, tendon damage or something in the long-term from doing it an unusual way.
So I figured if this is how millions knit and have luck with it, then it must work. It took about a week to get used to the offical right way.
OK, I can report that Sandra’s way of holding the yarn really does work! But it’s kind of complicated to wind the yarn. I think I’ll have to print out the picture and leave it in my knitting bag! But it works, and that’s what matters.
