# Show us how you knit: videos of knitting styles



## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

WIHH's thread on peruvian knitting got me to thinking about the many ways that we each hold our yarn and knit.

Sure, we all know (or can quickly find out) the basic differnce between Continental and English style knitting ... but it's my sneaking suspicion that there are a *lot* of variations on both of those major styles! For instance, what I do would be classified as English (or American, depends where you're from I suppose) style because I hold my working yarn in my right hand. However, the way I tension the yarn over my fingers and manipulate the needles & working yarn is different than anyone else I've seen. I've seen people who completely drop the working yarn every stitch, people who use their index finger to hold the yarn, and any number of variations on the theme.

I think it'd be cool to use this thread to show links to various styles of knitting - as Forerunner said, some of us are more 'isolated' and don't have other knitters to watch. I know that I've learned a lot from watching other spinners - even if their technique is way different from mine, I still often pick up neat ideas that I can modify and use on my own.

So ... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QwtQGv9pk&feature=youtube_gdata"]here [/ame]is the video of Frazzlehead knitting, so you can see how I do things. If you've got links to other videos or can make one of your own, I'd love to see it and I'm sure there are others who would as well. 

(The autofocus is doing some odd things, so if you think it's your eyes ... it isn't. But I didn't want to go back and do it all over again since the rest of it worked out fairly well!)


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Excellent video, shows all in perfect detail and wastes no time! As a simple pincher, this looks like a reasonable way to do a tension wrap instead. I'll be practicing, thanks Frazzlehead!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Thanks, RedDirtCowgirl!

I remembered someone on here saying essentially that "threading the yarn through your fingers for tensioning totally doesn't work" ... can't remember who it was though, but I am hopeful that seeing one way that it *can* work might be helpful to whoever that was ... and to others, like you, who are forced to pick up the yarn each time for lack of any other options!

Keep fiddling until you find a 'finger threading method' that works for you. Each of us has different hand and muscle configurations - so no one thing will work for everyone. Like I mentioned in the other thread, as an almost-lifelong keyboard user (computer geek) my hands are well adapted to multiple small movements and tend to get achy and sore if I have to hold them in any one position for very long, or if I have to hold my hands out of their naturally 'curled finger' kind of configuration for long. This method seems to provide me with the ability to hold the needles loosely but without risk of dropping them (gravity more or less holds them on the inwardly curved distal digits of each hand, or with the periodic light pincer grip of index finger & thumb), to distribute the motions across both hands (so that all the muscles get to take a turn contributing to the process and no one set of muscles or digits are singled out for heavy use/abuse), and to allow me to comfortably shift upper body position as needed to provide a change of angle for shoulders and upper arms (I can lean on either elbow and still knit, hold my knitting closer to me or further away - and those little variations keep me from stiffening up).

Can't wait to see how everyone else has solved their personal body mechanics issues! We are all unique and we all do this a smidgen differently, and yet we all make fabric - isn't that just so cool?


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Hey, I just noticed something I apparently do without thinking ... didn't see it until I watched the video again.

When I am knitting, I use my right index finger to help push the tip of the left needle back down and away ... and when I am purling, I use my left thumb to push the tip of the right needle back down and away. That's part of the "use both hands to move the needles" thing I am doing ... and totally didn't realize I was doing it. 

Wow, the things you learn watching yourself on video.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Frazzle you knit very much like I do but I don't hold my yarn the way you do. I'd have to go and knit something so I see just what I do. Funny how we do these things without thinking about them. Now that I have to think about it I have no idea just what I do do :hrm:


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Great video Frazzle! I subscribed to your channel


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Glad you guys like what you see! WIHH, we are *impressed* by beet and garden stained fingers, not *appalled* by them ... do a video!

Marchie, I'd love to see how you hold your yarn. Do you push the needle tips the same way I do? I can't remember when I started doing that, but I am pretty sure it was a good while after I began knitting. I'm just fascinated by the number of tiny differences we all have (and you'll be amazed at what you learn about your *own* knitting when you watch yourself on video)!


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

Great video! I may make one too. And would love to see everyone else's knitting style. Beet stains, garden dirt (ok, I will TRY not to be jealous) and all.


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

Yowser Frazzle - you are FAST!!!! I couldn't even see what you were doing in the beginning your fingers were moving so fast!

I dream about knitting that fast. Wow - I am so impressed!! :drum: rincess: :wizard:


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## FMO3 (Nov 22, 2009)

Frazzle,

You hold your yarn in your right hand kinda like I do with I use that method. But, I hold the needle, in the joint of my thumb and fore finger...think holding a pencil. I think that way I never have to let go of my needles...a little bit of a control freak I guess there. But, I will have to see if my camera will take a video and show you the easy way to continental knit. Most think your left hand has to do something...mine just holds the yarn basically.

Once, I find out the camera issue and that, and how to use you tube. I will put up a video of both ways that I knit.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Frazzle I do use my whole hand like you do. All my digits seem to play a part in my knitting. But my thumbs do put the needles and hold them just the same way as you. I generally don't have the yarn draped over any of my fingers but occasionally it just happens on it's own and that's fine. When I do it on purpose it really seems to mess up my tension. I think I've taught several people to knit like I do, hehe!

FMO3, I have always been fascinated by people that hold their needles like that.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

You wanna see fast?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P51GByV0H2w"]Watch the Yarn Harlot in action.[/ame]
FM03, she holds the needle like you do (when using DPNs - she braces the single against her side but later in the video she shows the DPN technique).

She is utterly amazing.


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## sheepish (Dec 9, 2006)

Frazzlehead, I am always amazed at people who have taken the time to do videos and post them on Youtube. What a great job you did.

In answer to your original question, I haven't made my own video, but here is a knitter who did. She knits the way I do - Continental combined.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH6wD2jT-TI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH6wD2jT-TI[/ame]


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I used to purl the way she does, but it twists the stitch.


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

frazzlehead said:


> You wanna see fast?
> 
> Watch the Yarn Harlot in action.
> FM03, she holds the needle like you do (when using DPNs - she braces the single against her side but later in the video she shows the DPN technique).
> ...


DOUBLE YOWSER!!!! I have never seen anything so amazing! I will have sweet dreams tonight (and that's the only place me knitting that fast will happen haha)!!

Thanks for sharing Frazzle!


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## sheepish (Dec 9, 2006)

Maura said:


> I used to purl the way she does, but it twists the stitch.


It only twists the stitch if you don't knit into the leading leg on every row. It isn't the purl that makes the twist, it is the following knit.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

sheepish said:


> She knits the way I do - Continental combined.


This is how I knit also. I love that I know what stitch I did on the previous row just by looking at the stitches. Far less counting stitches and less confusing to me.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Frazzlehead, I think we're knitting clones, lol! I knit just like you do...down to the "cold finger" and the totally incoordinated, belongs-to-an-alien left hand!  I giggled at your cold finger description just before you did on the video, because I had the same problem when I started and again when I restarted a couple of years ago. 

And even though I've been production typing for a living for 28 years now, it still amazes me that I CAN type because of my useless left hand...and all my mistakes are always left-handed ones, lol. When I broke my right arm, I could barely feed myself with my left hand and brushing my hair was a nightmare! 

But now I'm weirded out to find someone else who knits like me, clear down to holding the thread! :looks around for the hidden camera: eep:

P.S. I love your rug and your rocker!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Sheepish, that's an interesting method for sure. I have tried Continental, but somehow or other the yarn refuses to tension properly in my left hand and I end up with it getting waaaaaay too tight. I suppose if I ever get serious about Fair Isle or something like that I'll have to figure it out.

Callie, that is so funny! No hidden camera, I promise! I think it is so very cool that the same technique just 'happens' to two people who have never met. Just goes to show that when you have sticks and string and two hands, there are only so many combinations that'll work and eventually, you'll find someone who found the same combination you did! Interesting that we are both keyboarders, too ... I wonder if that's influenced our style choice?

Do you spin right hand forward or left hand forward? I have to hold the fibre supply in my left hand, as all the pinch-and-release-and-twist-and-encourage stuff that the forward hand does is just wayyy to complicated for my "belongs-to-an-alien" left hand!


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I haven't been brave enough to try spinning yet! Although I do drool over all the gorgeous wheels, lol. I'm hoping to get brave enough to "graduate" to that soon.

I never thought about it, maybe the keyboarding did influence us. Who knows, there may be a bunch of frazzle-handed knitters out there, lol!


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I need to learn how to make a video so you ladies can tell ME how I knit. Maybe I am twisting ALL my stitches?


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

frazzlehead said:


> Do you spin right hand forward or left hand forward? I have to hold the fibre supply in my left hand, as all the pinch-and-release-and-twist-and-encourage stuff that the forward hand does is just wayyy to complicated for my "belongs-to-an-alien" left hand!


Even though I'm right handed, I spin carrying the fiber in my right hand with my left hand forward in a supported long draw. Basically all my left hand does is smooth the yarn.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Cyndi, I think the real reason I spin right hand forward is that when I learned to spin I used a drop spindle for a couple of years ... and the ONLY hand that can get the spin going on a spindle is my right one (I can't snap the fingers of my left hand either). That left my left hand holding the fibre and things just kinda evolved from there.

Maybe if I'd learned the thigh spin method, things would have been different ... but they are what they are! I also tend to do quite a bit with my forward hand, probably because my fibre prep isn't always what it should be, so there's a lot of double drafting and dealing with VM bits and other things like that going on ... all of which are far too complex for my very ummmm "limited" left hand. 

Fascinating how every body is different, yet so much is similar, isn't it?


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I spindle spin with the spindle/roving in my left hand and draft with my right. Funny, I think that is why I spin with my left hand forward!! LOL!!

Maybe it is in the drafting method?? I've always pulled back (away) from the twist instead of pulling forward (towards) the twist. 

Who knows!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I'm sitting here at work knitting on my KAL socks and noticing how I knit. A few things that I have noticed so far. I hold the working yarn between my index dinger and thumb the entire time I knit. I hold the right hand needle and work it with my pinky and ring finger almost exclusively. When working DPN's and tiny stitches at least, I use my left index finger to assist in the knitting, pushing the needle down through the stitches. I also noticed a few really quirky things. I tend to roll the left handed needle as I work the stitches. I give a tiny little tug on the working yarn before I work each stitch. I am not a tight or loose knitter I tend to knit right on gauge.

Cyndi and Frazzle, I spin with my right hand forward too. When I spin with a spindle I also hold the fibers in my left hand. I am right handed. For years I couldn't spin on a spindle well at all. Then I read HOS and learned that I was spinning with the wrong hand (being a right handed person). As soon as I switched everything changed and I could then spin wonderful yarns with a spindle. Oh, and I also didn't learn to spin on a spindle until I had been spinning on a wheel for about 10 years.


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