Your thoughts on Combined method?

[magiccrochetfan]

Well, I have to say I am pretty happy with myself...have taught myself to knit this week! I had learned back in the 70s but had tension problems and thought my curly stockinette scarf was a disaster...well, it was, but I now realize that was the stitch, not me. Thank goodness for all the info we now have at our fingertips:ccompute:book

 

The thing is, i have realized today that I am doing the Combined method:eek Came to this realization thanks to the videos at Knittinghelp. I can do the knit stitch in the regular Continental way, but the purl stitch in regular Continental has me stumped--I do not really want to try to learn that purl right now. The combination method for knit and purl seems so simple and evidently is my "natural" way to knit since I did it unintentionally (going by the pictures in 2 books, i thought I was doing it right for Continental). My tension was seeming tight at first, but loosened up today, and it seems very even. i have made garter stitch, stockinette, a checker pattern, cables, and ribs, that all seem to me to look OK.

 

From what I have read, I can see that increases and decreases may be different, also using circular needles. Otherwise, if I continue to do the Combined method, will I be missing out on anything? Right now, I would like to be able to make a sweater for myself in a simple shape with a cable down the front. Don't imagine i will want to try lace knitting anytime soon --crochet seems so much easier for lacey stuff;) I have Annie Modesitt's website bookmarked , and the grumperina.com site...my head is spinning right now!

 

I'm sorry for the looong post! basically I guess I just want reassurance from those with more experience that I will be able to proceed using the Combined method, and not have to translate every pattern. So please let me know what you think:think

 

Also, can anyone recommend a knitting reference book that covers Combined methods?

 

Thank you!!

[CrochetJC]

I also knit differently from most people. My stitches do not cross at the bottom of the stitch either in knit or purl. So far, I have had a problem with only a couple or so patterns that I had to figure out how I needed to do the stitches to look like the pattern. I use only round needles due to arthritis and can't hold the straight needles. Good luck to you and it sounds like you are doing okay with the way you have started.

[CDBear]

I say whatever works for you. As long as you're wrapping the yarn around your needle counter clockwise, and your tension is good, you should be good to go. Congratulations on learning a new skill!!!

[angieInCA]

I had been doing the Combined Method and had no problem with it. If there is a stitch pattern that gives me problems I usually work it up in a swatch until I get it right.

 

I recently while making a Scarf for a Christmas gift forced my self to start doing the Continental Purl stitch the correct way and I must say after continuing to do it for the entire scarf it became second nature. It took a while but now I have no problem.

 

I think one of the problems we "Crocheters" have when it comes to knitting is we are so used to working very fast and knitting is just not as fast. We like our immedate gratification so we tend to kint the fastest way possible. I have found that if I slow down my knitting I have fewer mistakes and the stitches look so much better. This where I fell into doing the purl the wrong way. It was faster so I wanted to do it. Now that I have practiced the correct wrap I can do it just as fast.

[magiccrochetfan]

I appreciate the replies. I am satisfied with the way the knitting looks...if I compare my stitches to a commercially-made sweater, it looks the same as that, on both the right and wrong side. This way of knitting does involve wrapping the yarn clockwise so it is different in that way; I guess that is why some decreases etc. have to be executed differently. I do feel like at this point my speed (geez, it is so much slower than crochet!) and tension are much better in Combined than the regular Continental method. I guess I will continue this way for a while until I encounter something that I am not able to do. I actually like to swatch so that is no problem. Thanks again for your thoughts. Would love to hear from anyone else too

[Knit Happens]

I'm certainly not an expert on any methods, and I do use the three mentioned, English, Continental and Combined, depending on what I'm doing. As for Continental and English, the stitches work out the same and one can do both styles in the same garment without problem. Why would anyone want to? In case your hands get tired in the one position, you can use the other; or if you prefer to do yarn overs or increases/decreases in one form or the other. The only time I use Combined with Continental or English is for ribbing, where it works up well and fast in Combined, and doesn't make a difference in the piece. Test ribbing for youself a few rows in Combined and a few in either English or Continental, and you'll see for yourself they do look the same. The "problem" with combined is that it twists the stitches in a way that doesn't work well with patterns written for English/Continental style and that is where you have to modify your technique to get the pattern to "show up" when knitting combined style - for instance, you can't used combined style in the round and do just all knit stitches; you have to maintain alternating rows of knit/purl because of the stitch twists. Annie Modesett's site is probably the best and I would imagine she has all the answers and get-arounds for patterns. It is certainly good to know all the methods, and you should practice Continental and English purling and get your tension good in all 3 styles.

[Angeleyz14]

Do what ever works best for you. I have no problem with k or p in english. But I have trouble purling in continental. I just tend to do it all english since that is how I was taught:hook and I haven't had a problem yet and am pretty fast too:)

[magiccrochetfan]

Well, with the help of a third book and the videos at KnittingHelp, I did finally "get" the Continental way of purling. (the videos are great, but for some reason i do better with a simple drawing to get me started)

 

Combined does go faster for me, and the tension is much more even...but perhaps too tight, I think. It is harder to get really even tension in Continental. My ribbing in Combined is much more springy than in Continental. I was thinking I could combine the two in one piece, like you said, Knit Happens. Was thinking if after the ribbing I did a row of Continental purl, that would set things up to continue in Continental ...maybe I will try that today. So I can see where I can keep getting better at both and use each for different things. I did tackle some simple decreases in Continental and that worked okay.

 

I really appreciate hearing from others who use the Combined style and your thoughts on all the styles:)