Purling - If I stick the needle in upwards?

#1

Hello Everybody. I’m a knitting newbie. I was given a short demo on how to knit at Michael’s yarn ovent this past January. I’m starting to think the lady showed me Combined Method, maybe. Because she taught me to knit through the back loop. The way she taught me to purl also didn’t involve wrapping the yarn around the needle, which is what I see happening in the how-to videos. So I’m trying to learn the normal way to always have untwisted stitches. I have no problem knitting through the front loop like most people, but purling is now more difficult. I hold the yarn in my left hand. When purling, I tend to stick the right needle into the loop with that right needle pointing upwards. In the video I see that I’m supposed to stick it in at a downwards angle. I wish I could see the instructor’s whole hand, needle, and arm, because when I attempt to do this, I have to lift my right elbow high in the air to make the needle point downwards.

So I guess my question is, would it be okay if I did purling with the right needle pointing upwards as I go into the stitch, or is its pointing downward a necessary part? Thanks.

#2

Hello,
Knitting is putting your needle upwards and purling is putting your needle downwards then grabbing the yarn. Your method of knitting is continental knitting, which is how I knit. (This is also the best knitting form, since it is faster and easier to work with–I think!) Make sure you have your “work” facing toward you, so that all of your stitches are on the right side of your work. Hope this helps!

#3

I don’t think it matters if the needle is up or down - just as long as it goes into the stitch from right to left - I’m pretty sure my needles always point upwards. Knit stitches needle goes from left to right … :??

#4

The stitches ride your needle with one leg in front leg in back of the needle. IF you spread your stitches out, you’ll see that one leg is pulled closer to the point of the needle than the other. That’s the leading leg.

In conventional western knitting, the leading leg is on the front side of the needle. To knit, you insert the needle from the front left to the back right of the leading leg. You purl by inserting the needle from the front right to the back left of the leading leg. In both cases you wrap the yarn around the needle counterclockwise.

In combined knitting, the leading leg is sometimes on the front, and sometimes on the back of the needle. Knits are always wrapped counterclockwise and purls wrapped clockwise (‘scooped’) but the direction from which you enter the stitch depends on which leg is leading. If the leading leg is in front, you enter the stitch just like Western knitting. If the leading leg is in back, you enter knits from front right to back left, and purls from back left to front right.

#5

I am a contiental knitter too. I wrap how Amy wraps in the video. I insert the working needle into the stitch, just at the bottom of the source needle. Once inserted into stitch, I point the needlepoint upward, wrap (like Amy), then go under the needle, and slide stitch off. Play and replay Amy’s video. I could never make a consitant pearl stitch wrapping the other way. After holding the needle, pausing the video, and doing each movement, pause video, replay, etc. I could finally make a CONSISTENT pearl stitch. In fact I hated pearling, until I copied her. I love to pearl now.

#6

Thanks for the explanation, and thank you Everybody for the advice. I’m not sure which of these ways I’m doing it. The way the lady at Michael’s taught me, there was no wrapping of the yarn at all. I didn’t wrap the yarn around the needle for knit or for purl. Holding the yarn in my left hand, I just sorta pulled the yarn through the stitch with the right needle.

But when I look at the how-to video here, I see that for purl, even for the Continental way, you have to wrap the yarn around with your finger in a way that is definitely not part of what the lady at Michael’s showed me. And the narrator says something like “notice the angle of my needles, the right one is pointing downwards”, which would seem to mean that that’s a crucial part of it. But with reading Knit-aholic’s and AmandaR’s posts, I’m still not sure if it is. Ah well, I guess I will figure it out.

Thanks everybody.

#7

i was watching myself last night and this is what I do … it may not be correct but it looks fine!

Knit - needle goes into stitch from left to right and righthand needle is underneath left needle. ummm yarn is wrapped counterclockwise

Purl - needle goes into stitch from right to left and righthand needle is above left needle. yarn is wrapped … counterclockwise again :?? That may be wrong … i am trying to picture myself doing this :?? hmmm yeah - my yarn goes over the right needle and round the tip in counterclockwise direction, same direction as for knit.

I am an English knitter so don’t know about the yarn for continental but the needle positions should be the same shouldn’t it … I thought from the video it was only holding the yarn that was diff.

Gosh how confusing - I guess it doesn’t matter as long as the end result is satisfactory to you.