Yay! Learning to knit continental style 😁

You can't fit four of them under your arms (can you? 🤣)

PinkCosmos, what happens if you are knitting in the round and need four needles? 🤔🤭

Lovely, ginny

I'd gone back to crocheting again but I'm going to have to go and knit a square now just to see which method I use!!

ginny that is beautiful. Love the colours.

Rubysong - I am from Lancashire. Maybe it is more common 'up North'.

Apparently, knitting with the needle under your arm is English knitting.

I never see anyone knitting like this - apart from myself. It is way better than having both needles flapping about. The tension is better and you can knit quickly

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpm6h8Gm0w

PinkCosmos I knit like you, with the needle under my right arm. As you say, it hardly moves. That's the way I have always done it. I wonder if it is a regional thing, I was brought up in East Yorkshire.

SnAfflled !

Finished!

Latest single bed size crochet blanket.
Pattern from Attic 24.
I thought it was for me but my Son in Law sniffled it.😄

I can only knit with the right hand needle under my arm. The needle barely moves. This is the way I was taught by my mother. I don't know anyone else who knits like me.

I have to buy extra long knitting needles as the normal ones are too short to stay under my arm.

I have tried knitting without the the needle under my arm but it feels like the needles are just flopping about. With it under my arm, it feels like I am more in control IYSWIM and my tension is always good.

Unfortunately, because of my way of knitting, I can't use circular needles, which is a bit frustrating.

I think it is hard to re-learn as so much of knitting, crochet etc. is muscle memory.

Continental knitting looks very satisfying when you watch the experts. I think I would struggle to 'catch'' the wool.

Callistemon21

Oldnproud

NonnaW

Callistemon I take my hand off the needle to wrap the wool around - I’m not a TV actress nor a novice. My knitting is pretty even, and I knit intarsia, cabling, lacy patterns. It might to be the ‘right’ way, but it works for me.

I take my hand off, too when knitting the UK way.

Not long ago my mother noticed this and commented on it. She said it looked strange and insisted that she doesn't do that. Yet she is the person who taught me to knit! Though I was a left-handed child who was taught to knit the right-handed way, so maybe I adapted that movement slightly without realising to one that felt easier to me.

Perhaps that is why I am finding that I knit more quickly when I knit the continental way.

Apologies!

I've only seen people on TV doing it that way, I'd love to see an expert doing it.

I know exactly what you mean about actors knitting like that, Callistemon. It is usually so obvious when they have just 'learnt' the movement for the role they are playing, as their action is so slow and 'deliberate' iykwim.
I'd like to think that I do it a lot faster and more naturally than they do, but I wouldn't call myself an expert

It's similar when an actor has a scene where they have to peel potatoes with a proper knife as opposed to a peeler - you can tell right away if they have never done it before in their life. 😁

Oldnproud

NonnaW

Callistemon I take my hand off the needle to wrap the wool around - I’m not a TV actress nor a novice. My knitting is pretty even, and I knit intarsia, cabling, lacy patterns. It might to be the ‘right’ way, but it works for me.

I take my hand off, too when knitting the UK way.

Not long ago my mother noticed this and commented on it. She said it looked strange and insisted that she doesn't do that. Yet she is the person who taught me to knit! Though I was a left-handed child who was taught to knit the right-handed way, so maybe I adapted that movement slightly without realising to one that felt easier to me.

Perhaps that is why I am finding that I knit more quickly when I knit the continental way.

Apologies!

I've only seen people on TV doing it that way, I'd love to see an expert doing it.

NonnaW

Callistemon I take my hand off the needle to wrap the wool around - I’m not a TV actress nor a novice. My knitting is pretty even, and I knit intarsia, cabling, lacy patterns. It might to be the ‘right’ way, but it works for me.

I take my hand off, too when knitting the UK way.

Not long ago my mother noticed this and commented on it. She said it looked strange and insisted that she doesn't do that. Yet she is the person who taught me to knit! Though I was a left-handed child who was taught to knit the right-handed way, so maybe I adapted that movement slightly without realising to one that felt easier to me.

Perhaps that is why I am finding that I knit more quickly when I knit the continental way.

Callistemon I take my hand off the needle to wrap the wool around - I’m not a TV actress nor a novice. My knitting is pretty even, and I knit intarsia, cabling, lacy patterns. It might to be the ‘right’ way, but it works for me.

TBH I’m quite happy with the U.K. way - my knitting is pretty quick and even.
But it was neither quick nor even until my mother finally persuaded me to ‘feed’ the yarn round my little finger, under the next two, and over my index finger - it speeds up knitting no end.

Not long ago I saw a young woman on the bus (evidently fairly new to knitting) very laboriously doing the in, over, through, off, bit, and was dying to show her, but didn’t, in case she saw me as an interfering old bag and gave me short shrift.

nanna8

I’ve always knitted the continental way ( I didn’t know any different) which fits with what I have learned about some of our ancestors and their place of origin. Goes back many centuries. My Auntie taught me.

It does come down to how you are taught. I learnt at school and was taught the English way which 'throws' the yarn. Many Scots use the continental method, or a variation of it, particularly those on the islands. The continental way is much more efficient, particularly for stranded Fair Isle knitting, but trying to do it differently would slow me down so much, as the way I do it is second nature now.

My knitting has always been even - even when I was learning and making lots of mistakes the stitches were all the same size - but I do 'something' that unscrews interchangeable needles as I knit. I've tried to get to the bottom of that, but again, I can't. I hold the needles and move the yarn almost unconsciously now, and if I try to do it differently I get in a muddle.

BlueBelle, I'm just curious; is there a reason why you can no longer follow a crochet pattern? Especially when you could before. I've only ever been able to follow easy ones.

I’ve always knitted the continental way ( I didn’t know any different) which fits with what I have learned about some of our ancestors and their place of origin. Goes back many centuries. My Auntie taught me.

I've just had a look at various knitting methods and apparently I use the Lever knitting method, which means not taking the dominant hand off the needle at all, just looping the yarn round the needle.
I thought most knitters in the UK did that.
Apart from actresses on the TV who take their dominant hands off the needle and carefully loop the yarn round the other needle!

Coming from an East coast former fishing town I grew up seeing the Scottish fisher girls walking round town knitting I doubt anyone could go faster never seeming to even look at their work I m guessing they knitted the British way
I used to be a good crocheter but can’t follow a pattern now it’s really annoying I made my girls lovely white silk christening dresses can’t even make a daisy now…. I have tried

Esmay, it's worth having a look at it. It might work out well for you. I have just started learning the purl stitch today. It was difficult at first but it's getting easier. I have mild arthritis in my fingers so I am hoping the continental style of knitting will be less taxing. I hope your thumb joint feels better soon.

Hi Fairycakes -if it's less taxing on the joints then , it's a great idea !

I'm going to ask my knitting /crochet genius friend about it at craft group .

I'm in the middle of another project and I've strained my thumb joint .

flappergirl, have a go! What have you got to lose? . It is relaxing and very therapeutic .

Thank you, everyone for your encouragement. If anyone else fancies having a go at continental knitting, YouTube (as others have mentioned) is the place to go.

This is the tutorial that I am following. I tried others but this is the one that I found easiest to follow:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLSaApeG-vY

He's a German knitter called NimbleNeedles, and he has lots of other videos on continental knitting.

I've taken a look and it would be no good for me as it's my index finger which is having problems.