"Knitting -- The Master Plan -- Back to Square One ..."

Credit: "Tangled"
craftsfromthecwtch.co.uk

I had my suspicions ... there must be a special way to hold the knitting needles while working.  I was sure the left hand needed to feed the loops to the right. The right hand, the heavy lifter, must somehow keep tension on the feeder yarn while completing each stitch.  If I was ever going to speed up the knitting process I needed to discover and learn this technique. 

Well, according to a vintage 1975 "Learn How Book," some fingers go one place and other fingers go another.  The booklet provides a detailed description of "what to do with the right hand" and "what to do with the left hand."  I knew it.

Credit: learn2knit.co.uk

The left hand is straightforward ... hold the first stitch lightly by the index finger near the tip of the needle.  Here comes the tricky part ... in the right hand, hold the needle between the thumb and index finger then place the yarn "over the first finger, under the second, over the third, and under the fourth."  This placement facilitates adjusting the yarn to maintain tension and obtain "the best results." The challenge is to keep the right hand's fingers wrapped according to plan while maintaining tension on the yarn and knitting each stitch.

Whoops!  I've created my own way of holding the needle and yarn ... time to learn the correct way to knit.

Credit: keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

I'm going to explore "YouTube" to see if I can find some video of the correct position and movement of each hand. Then it's going to be "practice, practice, practice" until I master these movements. It's back to "Square One!"

P.S.  I found an insightful article for beginning knitters, "Some Beginner Tips (or "Things I hadn't thought about before Learning to Knit")" 

www.craftsfromthecwtch.co.uk/2012/08/some-beginner-tips-or-things-i-hadnt.html


The highlights from the article:

1) Be prepared to make mistakes,

2) Knitting shouldn't be a headache,

3) Get (at bit of) the right kit,

4) Find a Mentor,

5) It's not a race, and

6) It's addictive.  

Take the time to read this entertaining article!