A New Way of Knitting

14:29 Renée 14 Comments

I have been waiting and waiting for an opportunity to photograph a couple of finished items to show you guys. But it seems that every day I have been off from work for the past two weeks it's been raining or just very overcast and crazy dark in my house, making it completely impossible to take pictures! So instead, I thought I'd tide you over with a little update on the knitting front.

A month ago I made the decision to stop being a monogamous knitter. I was always afraid that if I worked on more than one project at a time I would end up not finishing things. But at times only working on one project at a time could get very frustrating when I got stuck. If I made a mistake and had to think about how to fix it, or otherwise had to make a decision, I had to put the project aside which meant I would sometimes not knit for days. And for someone who has become so obsessed with knitting, not knitting for a couple of days is very frustrating ; )

I am now working on 3 projects, which seems to be the perfect number. This way I can work on one garment + 2 accessories (shawl, socks, mitts..) and I can make sure that one project is relatively easy for those days where I don't want to think too much.

Because I am now knitting on more than one project, I also required another change: project bags! I used to just have a basket in which I kept all of my knitting stuff - the project I was working on and all of my notions. But from watching knitting podcasts I discovered the practical solution that is project bags. And being a seamstress as well as a knitter I naturally made my own.




Another major change I made was the way I knit. I learned to knit English style, letting go of the needle when wrapping the yarn every time. I new that continental could be more efficient but I didn't really feel like swapping from my right to my left hand. Over a year ago I found out about 'flicking' through Stacy from Very Pink Knits on Youtube. It's been something I wanted to learn ever since, but last month I finally took the time to just take some random yarn and practice, practice, practice. It was definitely a struggle at first and it took every bit of willpower in me to not just quit, but after about 3 days of practising plain stockinette I finally got the hang of it. And by now it has made a major difference in my speed. Especially when I knit stockinette or garter I knit quite a bit faster than I used to be able to. It has also really helped with two colour knitting. I started to learn continental as well so now I am able to hold the main colour in my right hand and the second colour in my left. I do still struggle a lot with continental purling though, and have actually been purling the second colour the Portuguese way!

So, on to projects. First of all I have been working steadily on the Christmas Jumper. In my last post I mentioned that I had a hard time deciding between the classic Christmas red or navy blue. I ended up going with red, but when I finished the ribbing and wanted to increase for the body, I checked the number of stitches I needed again an suddenly realized something was off. I re-measured my gauge swatch and realized that I had calculated my gauge wrong. The red yarn was simply too thick and would never work for the 8 sts per inch I needed - unless perhaps if I used 2.5mm needles which did not seem very comfortable. Knitting with 2.75mm needles was already a struggle with this yarn. So I frogged it and started over with the navy blue yarn, which gave me the correct gauge on 3 mm. And I must say I am actually quite happy this happened because I like the blue so much better! I finished the front and am currently about halfway trough the back.



The other project I'm working on is the Autumn Leaves Stole by Jared Flood. I'm knitting it in Cascade 220 in the most perfect shade of mustard yellow (not very accurately represented in the picture - it's much darker). Unfortunately I just finished the first half of the stole but have already used more than half of the yarn.


The third project I'm working on is a second version of the Canopy shawl, again in Drops Alpaca but this time in a lovely aubergine colour.



Hopefully I will be back soon with an actual finished project to show you, but if not I will just have to entertain you with some free knitting patterns to tide you over!

14 comments:

  1. I also learned to knit English style, and even though I know continental would be more practical, I'm very hesitant to invest the time to 'relearn' knitting. So I'm super impressed you actually managed to do this. That Christmas jumper is going to be absolutely brilliant!

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    1. Well it did take me a year to finally do it and quite a bit of willpower. Re-learning to knit certainly isn't easy but it was definitely worth it!

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  2. Your project bags are super super cute!! And with holidays coming up, I'm upping my knitting non-monogamy game. Now to make some cute project bags myself!
    And when I very first started knitting, I taught myself both English and Continental pretty quickly.

    Carla, Tiny Angry Crafts

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    1. Yay I'd love to see your project bags when you're finished!

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  3. I always have a few projects on the go, especially one that doesn't need much concentration for crafting with friends or watching a film. All your knits are looking lovely, especially the Christmas one.

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    1. I just can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!

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  4. I learned to knit right handed, but have always "flicked", although I had no idea it was considered different from standard English knitting (essentially self-taught). I did learn how to knit continental several years ago and it is definitely faster than either English or flicking, but I find it's invaluable being able to do both, especially when doing color work. I love your project bags!

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    1. Yes, If I would've knit the Christmas sweater with only my right hand I think it would have taken me till next Christmas to finish it!

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  5. Lovely project bags, you make me feel unworthy, since I use shabby ziplock bags all the time. And welcome to the club of multi-project knitters :-D.
    Your christmas sweater is so lovely, I am deeply impressed that you manage stranded knitting on straight pieces and it is so neat and even. I only can knit stranded in the round, but I am a strictly continental knitter up to now, I just don't get the hang of this flicking and throwing thing. I still use elizzzas method of knitting with one thread at a time and just transferring the other stitches to the right hand needle, thus acutally knitting the stranded row twice, once with the contrast and once with the main color. It takes forever, so MY christmas sweater is probably going to finished for Christmas 2016.
    Greetings form Germany,
    Ingrid

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    1. I really isn't so neat and even in real life, lol! There are loads of wonky stitches that are twice the size and quite a bit of puckering at the reindeers because my float where too tight. I will definitely be switching to knitting in the round though, because purling colourwork is tedious! I just have to learn how to steek.

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  6. Your Christmas Jumper looks great thus far! So much better than how my first (and only) attempt turned out. I may try again someday, but I am still too scared of knitting with two colors at once. :D

    Cheers!

    Brigid
    the Middle Sister and Singer

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    1. No reason to be scared! The great think about knitting is that you can always rip it back. Once you cut into fabric you can never go back, so knitting is a lot 'safer' ! ;)

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  7. This is such a good idea. I always feel like I shouldn't start another project until I've finished the last one, but maybe this is the way to go!!

    I found that once I made the switch from English to Continental, my knitting has not only gone faster but hasn't hurt my elbows as much either. ❤

    xox,
    bonita of Lavender & Twill

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    1. It has definitely become the way to go for me, I am enjoying the knitting process so much more!

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