Hi everyone! Time for another installment of Ria + June. The first post about knitting methods covered in Principles of Knitting discussed all the right hand holds for knitting and purling. You can find that video and blog post here. In this episode I share the left hand holds, along with some interesting variations and thoughts on left-handed, combined and bidirectional knitting. By the way, I’m knitting with one of my favorite shades of Zealana Heron, H12 Honey.
You might think, “I already know how to knit and purl, why should I read any of this?!” Well, I agree with June’s thinking that it is always worthwhile to look at alternate methods, for a few reasons. You can potentially increase your speed or reduce risk of injury, and you can become much faster at two-handed stranded knitting.
In the video above I mentioned stitch mount, which refers to how a stitch is mounted on the knitting needle. It’s a very subtle thing but it makes a huge difference with how your finished fabric looks and how you work certain stitches. I recommend this fantastic blog post for a closer understanding of stitch orientation, or mount.
I also mentioned that the reigning queen of combination knitting is Annie Modesitt. Her book Confessions of a Knitting Heretic is considered canon for knitters who are always being told they don’t knit the “right” way.
Over and out for now,
CR
