Before I begin, I need to explain that I knit English style; that is I throw the yarn every time I work a stitch. I don’t know how the following process would work for a Continental-style knitter and I apologize in advance for not being able to cover that base as well. But I can’t share what I don’t know.
You’ve probably heard about a process called ”“knitting backwards”. Actually, this is a misnomer because you aren’t really knitting; you’re purling from right to left with the front of the fabric facing you. The big advantage of this technique is that you never have to turn your work. This is very useful for smaller stockinette pieces and indispensable for Entrelac. But what do you do if the fabric isn’t stockinette? What if it’s seed stitch or ribbing - a mixture of knit and purl stitches? You could work in the round except that’s not always going to be possible. Or you could turn your work at the end of every row. That will certainly work, but for a piece that’s only a few stitches wide, it gets tedious really fast.
So what do we need? We already know how to purl from right to left so we need to figure out how to knit from right to left as well. We can then work whatever stitch we want from whatever side of the fabric we’re on moving in either direction. Wouldn’t that be cool? Heheh...I thought so too.
Step 1.
Step 2.
Step 3.
Step 4.
Step 5.
And here we are!
The process isn’t difficult but it will take a bit of practice - not much really, maybe an afternoon’s worth, all together. It works very nicely with the “purling from right to left” process too - things like seed stitch and ribbing just sort of fly along when you don’t have to turn your work, reposition your hands and readjust your tension at the beginning of every row. You can really build up a head of steam this way - throwing while you work left to right and “scooping” when you work right to left.
There is a small movie available, KnitDemo, that shows the mechanics of how things go together - I hope! It’s about 6.5 megs and will take a few minutes to download. I mention this because it wouldn’t be anything for someone who connects to the internet via cable or DSL, but it will take some time for those on a dial-up connect.
As always, please let me know if something is unclear or difficult to understand. I’m really excited about the ability to do this and I’d love to spread the good word - but I’d prefer to do it in a way that enables everyone to “get it” and, of course, to have as much fun as possible along the way :)
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congrats to your photographer- excellent illustrations- and very concise directions too-
do i see ‘ruffles’ in the near future for one of you there?
i knit english too- (i’ve tried to learn continental or combined but you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks- old dog here just feels more comfortable throwing that yarn)- i’m going to try this technique though as i have on occasion given up on things because of the annoyances caused by constant turning and turning etc- thanks for the step-by-step lesson-
stay happy-
Barb - The talented and inestimable Myria took the photographs. She is good isn’t she? Let me know if you have any problems with the technique and I’ll try to help :)
And yes, Myria says one can never have too many black skirts or pink scarves :)
I’m confused ... you keep mentioning working from right to left but isn’t one way, the one you’re explaining and photographing, working left to right?
Evidently, I live in a sad and shallow world. Instead of looking at how you were forming your stitches, I found myself thinking “Robbyn has much nicer nails than I have”. How awful am I???
Charlotte - Sorry for the confusion. Normally you would be working the stitches off the left hand needle onto the right hand needle. Here, you are doing just the opposite; you’re working the stitches off the right hand needle and on to the left.
I hope the pictures aren’t confusing, but I really am working the stitches off the right needle. This is opposite the way I usually work and the way I imagine most people work.
Pam - LOL! What’s funny is that all you can really see are my thumb nails which are okay. All the other nails (or nail remnants), I chopped off the other night because they were so chipped and ragged they kept catching on my yarn and driving me bonkers!
