What Style Do You Knit?

[KnicKnac]

Just curious...

 

Continental

Throw Over (That's Me!!!)

Other

 

The poll will take multiple answers.

[Aggie May]

I knit proper.

Well I think I do.

I actually knit how my mother taught me, probably called the throw method but because I dont take my hand off the needles, it really is more of an index finger flick.

When doing Fairisle, I hold my second colour in my left hand and do a sort-of Continental style so I dont have to keep changing the yarn over.

I have been knitting for well over 50 years and it was not until I got onto the Message Boards that I realised how many different ways people find to knit and crochet. Some look easy and some look hard and I just want to wave my magic wand and help everyone to find the easiest way to knit or crochet so there is no struggle or sore hands.

Have fun.

Colleen.

[KnicKnac]

Quite frankly, I tried the continental and I just cant get it - it's too hard...and my friend that knits says she doesn't understand why i can't get it, because when i crohet, she says i hold my yarn like i am supposed to hold it for the continental method...

 

oivea

[julie5813]

When I first started to knit, I used the throw method. I tried Continental, but couldn't get the hang of it. Then I took a break from knitting. When I picked it back up, I looked through my How to Knit book and decided to try Continental again, and it works so much better for me than the throw method did!

[sammimag]

I don't know yet! I want to learn continental because I know I would like to do color work in the future and I have tried some and it feels fairly comfortable. We'll see. I hope to cast on this weekend.

[Around74]

I tried the throw way and couldn't figure it out. It seemed so foreign to me to hold the yarn in my right hand. The continental way was much easier.

[flyinghooks]

I don't know yet! I want to learn continental because I know I would like to do color work in the future and I have tried some and it feels fairly comfortable. We'll see. I hope to cast on this weekend.

 

Me too! I need to go buy needles! I so want to make the tunic from the latest IC. I decided not to be made that it was a K/C combo, but to embrace the needles and finally learn to Knit.

[Crocus58]

I learned from my great grandmother when she visited from Denmark when I was a small child- so I "pick" - I always watch fascinated when I see someone "throwing" I just can't figure it out. Picking is so natural to me that I don't watch my hands when I work, I just know what stitch I am on by the feel. Since I learned crochet a few decades after learning to knit, I think my crochet style is based on my knitting style - lol

[sallenlouise]

Me, I'm a throw over!

It seems the most natural to me.

[kittytigger]

I guess I do the throw over. Until now, I didn't know anything about the Continental way to knit.

[nutz4crochet]

I'm a thrower too.

[karin4christ]

I do the throw over.

[sakurasaku]

Yarn Boy has a funny response in "Ask Yarn Boy" about Continental knitters. You can read it on this page - scroll down to the second entry (Note: the content is PG-13).

[sallenlouise]

Yarn Boy has a funny response in "Ask Yarn Boy" about Continental knitters. You can read it on this page - scroll down to the second entry (Note: the content is PG-13).

 

 

Thank you for sharing!!!!! That was just too cute!

[KnicKnac]

Yarn Boy has a funny response in "Ask Yarn Boy" about Continental knitters. You can read it on this page - scroll down to the second entry (Note: the content is PG-13).

 

Oh yeah, that was cute!

[robynbird]

I knit both ways.

[Tiga]

I'm self-taught, and I tried both, and man, "throwing" seemed so awkward and weird after learning to crochet first. So, I'm a "picker" all the way.

 

I think it's much easier to purl Continental style, well, for me, anyway. Now, if someone could just invent a way for knitting to go faster...

[ChainOFools]

I'm not exactly sure what "throw over" is...I knit English style, or at least that's what I was told...hold yarn in right hand. I did learn Continental style as well, and figured for crocheters learning to knit the continental might be easier...most people who use that style say they knit faster as well.

[thecrochetdude]

I started by knitting combination, which you can find a fantastic tutorial on Annie Modesitt's website (that's where I taught myself to knit): http://www.anniemodesitt.com

 

I like it because it is very fast and your tension is immediately perfect because your knits and your purls are exactly the same size using exactly the same amount of yarn (unlike regular knitting where purls are bigger than knits). You can pump out stockinette at frightening speeds. The only limitation is that you can't knit in the round because of the twist of the stitches.

 

Which is what led me to learn to knit continental. A friend loaned me a video tape and with a little practice I finally learned; the hardest part for me was wrapping the yarn for the purl stitch.

 

[PCARR69]

I tried to learn the by the throw method and my aunt told me Continental was so much easier and she taught me. It is so much more like crocheting and the KnittingHelp.com website helped me tons. Amy has tons of video tutorials for both Continental and the Throw method. Check it out. She is terrific.

 

Patricia

Golden CO

[DesertCrocheter]

Here's an addendum to the poll. Not only do I knit continental, but I do Russian knitting, or combined knitting (as made popular by Annie Modesitt) or eastern crossed or was it uncrossed knitting (as it was recently called by the head of the local Knitter's Guild). So, according to my friends, I knit backwards, which is probably typical of the way I do most things! Seriously, this is how all the women in my family knit. My mom was born in Poland, and so all the little Polish ladies she grew up watching and learning from knit this way. I didn't know there was another way to knit until I was watching my friend M knit two years ago and I told her she was doing it backwards. Whatever works, is all I say. Except that I purl much faster than she does!

 

Actually, continental just asks which hand you hold your yarn in, left (continental, like a crocheter) or right (English or American style), right? Throwing vs. picking is the difference between English style (throw) and the combined knitting style (pick) and has to do with how the stitch is formed. I agree, Annie's illustrations on how to pick are fabulous, and I've simply decided to never make anything that requires knitting in the round. LOL!! But can't you simply untwist your stitches to knit in the round if you 'pick' your way down the needle?

 

Patty

[lindamry]

I knit using the Eastern uncrossed style, too. And I don't have any problems knitting in the round, it looks just fine to me!

 

Linda Y

[Tampa Doll]

Here comes a real stupid question.

I have been knitting:knit since I was 8. I just took up crocheting about 15/16 years ago. Now I hear talk about continential and english now you are throwing in throw over.

I do not know what style I use, so could someone please tell this old knitter what the difference is in the 3?

I just am mind boggled, as I knit the way my Mom taught me.

[karin4christ]

Tampa Doll go to www.knittinghelp.com and look at the videos. She shows continental, english and combined. Then let us know which one you do.

[Tampa Doll]

Tampa Doll go to www.knittinghelp.com and look at the videos. She shows continental, english and combined. Then let us know which one you do.

 

 

Thanks Karin, Turns out I am the English with the throw over. I hold my yarn in the right hand and throw it over the needle.

 

Geeze I guress I should of known, after all I was taught by my English/Irish Mother. She tried to teach me crochet, but said I was to Polish like my Dad to learn. This was an on going joke with us. She would be real surprised with what I can do with a hook.