Sunday, January 13, 2008

Methods

When I posted about colourwork, Gyda mentioned that she holds both strands in one hand. Here is a link of the way I imagine she does it.

I said I was knitting both continental and English styles simultaneously, holding yarn in both the left and right hand. You will find a good video here.

See, what I think is so cool is that even though I've been knitting since I was 4 years old, I basically knew what my mother knew and that's it. What I have learned in the last 6 months has increased my knowledge base exponentially. It just blows my mind. Now I get excited when I find a new term in a pattern. Within moments I can search for knitting tutorials and find all I need and more. No sweat. If for some reason I didn't quite grasp what I was seeing, I can walk down to my LYS and one of the girls will sort me out in 2 seconds (for example, I needed to do an applied I-cord on the Tulip cardi, and Marilyn showed me exactly how easy it was).

My current knitting goal is to learn a method to purl quickly. I'll never be a Miriam Tegels, but I know that I'll pick up speed.

This same learning concept holds true for spinning. I might tell you that I am self taught (well, regarding spinning on a wheel; Amy taught me how to use a drop spindle), but in truth, I learned almost everything by watching online video tutorials. I started from ground zero, with a broken wheel and a really strong desire. If you have that and a computer, you're really in good hands. In case of an emergency, there's always help just down the street.

Now, the 2-colour brioche stitch, knitted in the round. Onward and upward. I know I can do it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, that is how I hold the yarn when I knit with two (or more) colors. But I don't wrap the strings of yarn (I have NO vocabulary in knitting, lol, so does this make sense?) around so many fingers like the woman in the video, just around my index finger. It has been so long since I've knitted that way though, but I do remember there was some system to this so that the right color would show up in the pattern.

Annie said...

I know what you mean.. I cannot wrap yarn like that or my tension is too tight. I don't know how some people can do that without cutting off the circulation in their fingers.

I am going to try it your way next time.