Knitting Styles

There are as many ways to knit as there are cultures that required clothing, in this post I am discussing English vs Continental knitting

When I started knitting, I didn't pay much attention to what hand was holding the yarn, it was hard enough to concentrate and do the right stitch at the right time and try to follow a pattern. This happens with any new skill that requires muscle memory, like driving or playing piano, at the beginning controlling the movement is hard enough without focussing on speed or anything else. I developed my own movement and later on I learnt that this was called English Style Knitting. The more people I saw knitting the more I wondered if I would ever be able to knit as quickly as the continental knitters and I realised I wouldn't because my technique simply required wider movement of my hands than theirs. So I decided to change to Continental Knitting, I was sure I'd be quicker once I develop muscle memory.

This idea was in my head for quite a while, I watched a ton of videos on the topic and tried over and over again, but Continental Style Knitting was not comfortable and my brain refused to cooperate making most of my knitting projects frustrating in the process. This issue put me off from knitting for a few months. As it happens, it was enough time to forget my muscle memory and having to learn how to knit all over again (I had not been doing it for long). This time I went for Continental Style and I am happy to report that I can do it and it has become more natural to me than English Style Knitting ever was. Not only that, the stitches are (feel?) more even than before. I have tried to capture this on these pictures, not sure it it is visible:

Continental vs English Style (front and back)

For anyone wanting to learn how to knit Continental Style I would recommend to watch plenty of videos on the topic on youtube, or alternatively use the craftsy course Knit Faster with Continental Knitting. This set of videos really did it for me.

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