Newbie Purl help with sore fingers

#1

iv been trying to learn to knit for about a week now and as i crochet thought i would start with continental style. which generally seems to be going fine.

im getting the knit stitch ok but a having trouble with the purl. it seems the left hand has a lot to do. i insert the right needle where it needs to go then im suppsoed to use my middle finger to lower the yarn so it can be brought through by the right needle. hope that makes sense.

when im pushing the yarn down with my middle finger the fingers left holding the needle turn so im holing on with my knuckles. it also seems my right hand does something fuuny too and my fingers are aching there as well.

if i hold the left needle between my left arm and side i can get along a row fine but it still doesnt feel quite right somehow.

is there another way i could try? the knit rows are fine its the purls that arent. im managing to do it but my fingers end up aching and sore

is there another way to do it? or another type of needle to try? ive tried holding the yarn to do it english style but it feels so horrible

hope that all made sense

thanks

Julie

#2

See if you can find the “combined purl” video. There are lots and lots and [I]lots [/I]of ways to purl, so one of them is bound to suit you. I can’t do it the “regular” way without a lot of struggle, and when I knit English it takes FOREVER, but if I do it roughly the way Annie Modesitt does, it works fine.

#3

If you’re doing whole rows use your thumb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owRkjaN0EDU

Otherwise when switching back and forth I push it down with my forefinger.

#4

thanks, will keep at it for a while, try different fingers too. it is early days though, maybe im just getting ahead of myself :slight_smile:

#5

I throw my yarn and only get sore fingers anymore if I am doing lace with the really pointy needles (Ouch!). Try putting a spot bandiad on that spot until it heals, which is what I did when I was first trying some new pointy needles. They help a lot, and you don’t care if you only use them a little while, then throw them away.

#6

I am also a crocheter teaching myself how to knit. I had tried to teach myself to knit a couple other times in the past but kept getting stuck and frustrated over purling. Then I found the video on this site for the Norwegian purling method.

WOW! After a few rows of practice at this, all of a sudden I feel like I can knit.

It looks way more complicated than regular purling, but at the same time, for a crocheter, it is intuitive after a few stitches. I sort of think of it as k:sc::p:dc – just an extra step, and doing a row with knits and purls in the same row is now just as easy as doing a row with sc and dc in the same row – and also removes some possibilities of losing stitches through moving the yarn from the front to the back, because I never have to. It also helps me keep the gauge consistent between knit rows and purl rows.