Knitting with one needle under arm

I knit with the needle tucked under my right arm. I am right handed and was taught by my Black Country Mum and Grandma. I don't knit as fast these days as I used to because of my arthritic hands. I am 69 and don't think I could change now. I also am unable to crochet. I do try occasionally but without success. I may try again this winter though.

Callistemon l laughed at your 2 sweater sofa
Nana3 I've probably got enough in my stash to knit a couple of sweaters for the sofa!

I always put one needle under my arm. Was taught by mum and grandma. I have been told it’s a ‘ northern ‘ way of knitting and that needles get shorter as you go further south! Found knitting a bit difficult with circular needles. I’m left handed and tried crochet but have problems with tension.

I always use bamboo circular needles, just seems so much easier to me and they do take the weight.
I mean for flat knitting, not knitting in the round.

This is a nice little video Romola. She demonstrates steeking as well which has always scared me to death!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygWM1e_sw0

I met this lady at a wool fair a few years ago, she is lovely. She holds the record for the world's fastest knitter, or did at the time.

Callistemon l laughed at your 2 sweater sofa ? and Sarahmob your sweaters are lovely.
I knit with a needle under my right arm, couldn't do it any other way now.
I saw a knitting stick on bargain hunt. One needle went into it and it was tucked into the belt leaving the knitter with a free hand to do another job. Imagine the stress and strain of that.

I must own up. I am one of those who lift their hand off the needle. I do remember old ladies knitting with one needle under their arm as said above, I have tried doing that movement where you just move your finger and wool over the needle but can't get it right or fast! Am I one of those who can't really knit!

Sarahmob your jumpers are lovely.

I'm more of a sewer than a knitter but have begun a practice piece for a pair of socks using four needles. This just to see if I can actually understand and make sense of the pattern before I consider buying better wool for the real thing.

The result, thus far, is messy with unnoticed dropped stitches and there's no way I'm posting a photo of it as it would have you all RAOTFL (rolling about on the floor laughing) - I must add that it looks vaguely sock shaped.

Romola

I don't have a problem with holding the needles under my arms. But what I can't do is a decent Fair Isle. I tried recently with a jumper for my DD but pulled it out and resorted to stripes (she is pleased with the jumper though).
Does anyone know of a good tutorial on You Tube for Fair Isle?
And I too find it slightly irritating to see actors on tv knitting but who can't really knit. Julia Mackenzie as Miss Marple can though!

Fairisle is more difficult to do on straight needles because of the purling rows but on circulars knitting the garment in the round means every row is a knit row and therefore makes fairisle and intarsia much easier. I could not go back to using straight needles for any kind of knitting. I use circulars for everything.

I use circular needle for absolutely everything I knit whether in the round or flat knitting. Couldnt go back to knitting with straight needles.

Ive always knitted with the right needle tucked into the waistband of my trousers or skirt. Can't hold them any other way now. It does make it difficult to knit when I'm wearing a dress though!

My Mum, who was an absolutely wonderful and fast knitter,knitted with one needle tucked under arm and ended up with all her cardigans having a hole in the armpit!! She was from NE as some other posters have said. She learnt to knit at 4 years old(socks) and spent next 83 years knitting the most beautiful things. One of her treasures was a carved wooden knitting sheath which I have inherited but never seen used

Sarahmob,your sweaters are adorable, well done

Luckygirl, you won’t be wanting to watch me knit then?

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202011/medium-315861-09871df9-de27-4174-9291-441d3382ed16.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202011/medium-136797-d1e4f2fd-9361-40f2-bb59-f3ca685ec4b5.jpeg

Here are my most recent creations ? I’d love to see what other knitters have been up to.

The Continental knitters here, can you also manage to purl the continental way? I haven’t mastered that.

I’ve timed myself using both my usual technique and the continental version for the knit rows and it’s faster for me using my old style.

Always knitted with needle 'tucked' but was having pain in my shoulders and realised it was this ?. The pain wasn't there when I was crocheting. I prefer knitting for jumpers etc so I switched to circular needles about 12 months ago and the pain has eased. It's taking some practice but I'm getting there, I'm 62 by the way. Also read somewhere that more lefties use the tuck method, don't know if it's true or not but I'm one ?.

having one needle under arm means arm is inside chair arm.
Sitting as much as possible in left corner of chair, if right handed, is helpful if possible.
Wish we all lived nearby we could visually help each other.

My great grandmother was from the Shetlands and I learnt to knit with the right needle tucked under my arm. But my grandmother said women shouldn’t knit as it took work from the men. She was a very fine needle woman. I didn’t see the logic as I thought the men would do the fancy stuff for sale and women the useful stuff.

Sarahmob

Nannarose I knit beautifully but can’t get the tension right when I try to crochet. Can just about manage to produce a granny square.

I remember my mother knitting complicated Aran patterns and said 'oh, it's easy when you get into it'. I've never got into it.

If you're making a granny blanket one tip I saw is to turn it and go the opposite way each round. It stops it curling at the edges.

Just remembered my mother could, and did, knit, following a complicated pattern, with a book open on her knee, while my dad watched football on the TV and she usually knew what the score was!!!! That's multi taskng for you!

Nannarose I knit beautifully but can’t get the tension right when I try to crochet. Can just about manage to produce a granny square.

My mother-in-law used to knit with both needles under her arms. It looked, to me, very uncomfortable but she always said that was how she was taught and it was just the natural way of doing it. I could never master the technique.

I use the continental style of knitting, which is much quicker than the British. In this style, you cannot tuck your needles under your arm, which is why on the continent knitting needles are shorter than in Britain.

We use five needles when knitting socks, not four.

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