Knitting with one needle under arm

I have just started to use the Knitpro needles too. I’ve seen people knit with a needle under the arm - I was brought up in East Sussex - but it’s not something I do. As no one really wants knitted jumpers in my family I now knit for a couple of charities which provided tiny garments and blankets etc for premmie babies or angel babies, and these only need short needles. Def couldn’t tuck one of those under my arm!

If ever we were shopping for new living room furniture, my criterion was always whether I could knit comfortably in the chairs - I would sit in them in the showroom and mimic the knitting action to test them out and many an armchair was dismissed no matter how comfortable it was otherwise.

(I must have looked batty, sitting there doing my invisible knitting )

The best knitter I ever saw used to tuck one of his needles under his arm. His work was amazing! I don’t think that I could manage it, as I prefer short needles. I’ve never been able to wind the wool round the needle without letting go, either. How do you do that, ladies?!

My mother knitted with her left needle under her arm. She was from Yorkshire. I used to knit reasonably competently and was able to flick the wool forward without taking my right hand off the needle though never mastered tucking in the left needle.
I was never as fast or as expert as my mother though and right up to her death would often visit with a complicated pattern that had "gone wrong" in some way I couldn't fathom. She'd correct it in a trice, even in her 80s.
RA has put a stop to my knitting though in the last ten years. That and not having anywhere to take my mistakes for correction!

That is my style. I couldn't change. I also can only use long needles.

The needle under one arm is how I was taught 60 years ago by my mum and have knitted ever since. Now, apart from the odd request from family or friends I knit for charity via an online group. The downside for me is never feeling comfortable with circular needles- I can’t seem to get into rhythm and so knit much slower

Use shorter needles?

Your comment about your mother knitting while she cooked, Trisher, reminds me that my mother used to knit while she slept!

I suppose she wasn’t really asleep, just had her eyes closed as she knitted, but it certainly looked that way to we children.

My mother knitted professionally (think the garments you saw on display in department stores) she always knitted with her needles under her arms. She had an apron with a pocket at the front and she could stand watching something cook while she knitted. When she needed to do something everything went into the apron pocket where the ball of wool always lived. I never managed to be any good at knitting because when I was sick of something I would hand it to her and she would finish it twice as fast as I ever could.

Oldbat1

I’ve been knitting since primary school but I just cannot crochet. I’ve tried. It is the tension I think I can’t cope with. I bought all the hooks at start of first lockdown watched loads of videos etc but total failure.

Me too. It ends up being really tight and the doesn't lie flat.

I love knitting really complicated patterns but with chunky wools. Never been into fine knitting. Don't do so much these days as the wool is so expensive. Costed a cardigan during lockdown. It would have cost me £120 for the wool I liked.

a knitting sheath maybe, or one of those belts. recently there was a knitting sheath on one of those buy and sell antiques programmes recently

The best knitter I know uses the "under the arm" method: I just don't know how she manages this, but it's her way! Streaky, might you benefit from sitting on a big firm cushion, which raises you up from the big padded arms of your new furniture. (A pillow or two might work?) As a septugenarian myself, I can't imagine learning to knit in a different way!

I’ve found bamboo needles quite variable. I have some that are very smooth but others where the yarn seems to catch. I prefer the coolness of metal needles overall and still use my ancient ones with the old sizings on them.

That's how I knit, find it very quick.

I use Knitpro needles, they are smooth without being slippery.

And, never too old to learn, I mastered a new way of casting on today. It's a pity I'm not happy with the mitred squares, though, and I'm going to rip them out tomorrow!

I use bamboo needles and honestly give very little thought to how I hold my arms or indeed my needles.
Surely everybody works out what suits them best - it may not be the classic “best” position, but who is to say?
I also first learned the German method from my mother who was an incredibly fast knitter but had to change to “British” knitting when at school. I can only cast on the German way however.

I tried the bamboo needles too Lollipops but I just couldn't get on with them at all. It felt as though the yarn dragged on the needles far more than on plastic or metal needles. Wouldn't do if we were all the same, would it!

I have just ordered a set of Bamboo knitting needles, they are easier to use as the wool just glides off the needles so you can keep them close to your sides ,
Also because I have pain in the base of both my thumbs, bamboo needles are supposed to be gentler to use, the ends are pointier therefore going through the stitches easily.

I knit with the needle under my arm couldn’t do it any it any other way now.

I like using really short needles as I can’t get on with the under arm style.

Continental knitting would reduce the amount of arm movement, if that’s the effect anyone is after.

Streaky

This is a link to lever knitting which seems to use little movement.
www.thesprucecrafts.com/knit-faster-with-lever-knitting-2115451

It might need some perseverance to master it but could help.
There is a link within the article to someone knitting that way. You would need long needles.

Shetland women carrying peat and knitting in the above post

I love a really complicated one. With bobbles as well^.?
My mother used to knit Aran jumpers.

I've reverted to plain garter stitch - a mitred squares blanket but I hope I don't get bored with it.

My MiL, from the NE of England, always held one needle under her arm. My mum, from Gloucestershire and my grandmother (London) didn't. I don't.

In Weardale, County Durham, the women used 'knitting sticks'. They put the end of the needle in the stick and the stick in their belt to hold it. The sticks were intricately carved and used as love tokens, too.

I have realised that's how I knit or used to knit. The needle under my left arm.