Rooom Roooom ... Speed Knitting

Okay, who can keep up with Miriam’s 118 stitches in a minute.

http://community.knitpicks.com/notes/Speed_Knitting

Katrina

That’s cool, but frankly doesn’t look relaxing at all. :shrug:

If I knit any faster I don’t know if I could afford to keep me in yarn. I think I would also run out of things to knit that I could find space for in my house.

I like the reminder to keep finger movements to a minimum and to keep your first finger close to the needle (something EZ also recommended).

But I really feel no need to be competitive about knitting speed.
What’s the big rush? :??

My knitting time is limited. There are times when ultra speed would be great.

As for relaxing - Her fingers may be relaxed but her brain isn’t unless she has so much muscle memory that she can at least be some mentally relaxed.

I think speed knitting is more for the product/product knitters. I sell bags, I’d love to be faster. BUT there are also times when I just want to sit back and work till I drop off to sleep, and I pace my knitting with my breathing. After a few minutes I forget I’m pacing it, and I keep knitting about the same speed. It’s still relaxing. :slight_smile:

Holy freakin’ moly!!! LOL That’s incredible!

Hey, I watched all the movies - who wants to start speed training? I’ll be doing that soon!!!

That is insane, I would like to do that…but I have to agree…I don’t think it looks relaxing…

I’d like to know how fast she knits when she’s doing something other than garter st.

For example, is she still as fast if doing bobbles, or cables, or Tw2L & Tw2R, or …

:aww:

Hmmmm … now that is an interesting question. I personally do not knit for speed. I understand the desire of wanting to complete the many projects one may have queued up; however, I am already hurried in other parts of my life when I stop and knit I do not want to rush through that also.
Katrina

Even in the vid she does stumble…it sounds like the speed is purely for competition sake. I don’t think you could sustain that speed for lengths of time over various patterns. I could be wrong, but things like keeping an eye on a pattern, fair aisle, pattern stitches…all of that would slow you down…

Wow! Those three-minute bursts of speed took me waaaaaaay back to my shorthand and typing lessons.

That’s how my shorthand tutor developed our speed - she’d have us first write at a comfortable speed - about 80 wpm for about the first 10 minutes to get our hands and fingers loosened up - and then she would gradually work up the speed to 140wpm by having us write in three-minute bursts of 100wpm and then 120wpm.

To get an accurate and transcribable note of 120wpm, we needed to reach a speed of 140wpm - well, if the pencils didn’t suddenly combust!

After having ‘warmed up’ your hands and wrists, working for [U]very short sessions[/U] at a speed you find slightly difficult to keep up with, (don’t be too ambitious here) will develop your overall speed, especially if you can do a couple of sessions per day.

Towards the end of the one-hour class session, the teacher would have us go back to writing at 80 wpm and it seemed really sloooooooow!

I think regular practice is the main thing - shorthand, typing and knitting speeds obviously drop if you don’t work at them - but they can very soon be built back up again.

Ellie