Knitting Styles

If you’ve ventured into a knitting group during your beginning phases, you may have heard some of the more experienced knitters speaking in what sounded like a foreign language. They mention exotic locations, things that sound high-tech, and just generally make you feel like you don’t know what they’re talking about. Now you can!

There are many different styles of knitting. Some relate only to specific aspects of knitting, while others are completely different ways of holding the needles and working with your projects. We’ll go through some of the main variations.

Continental Knitting

What you’ve learned so far in this book is one of two main styles of knitting and is often referred to as English or, more technically, “throwing.” This is because you use your opposite hand to “throw” the yarn over your needle. European knitters use a style called Continental (or “picking”), in which the needle is used to catch the yarn that is normally thrown over the top.

It’s a widely held opinion that Continental knitters are quicker than English knitters – English knitters can be fast, of course, but we’re talking averages – so that’s one of many instigators of the near-grudge matches Continental and English knitters get into when arguing which is better. Both accomplish the same goal, they just have different ways of accomplishing it. If you’d like to try Continental knitting, simply wrap the yarn around your left index finger and use the needle to grab (or “pick”) the yarn off of your finger and complete the knit stitch as usual. Hold the yarn in your left hand rather than your right. The simpler movement can help you increase speed.

Fair Isle Knitting

Doesn’t that sound like a lovely weekend getaway? “Fair Isle” – ahhh, just imagine the cool breezes, the hammocks swaying, waves crashing on the beach, and the crickets chirping at night. Okay, back to the knitting!

Fair Isle Knitting is a way of bringing color into your projects since two colors are worked in each row. The downside of this method is that the pieces not in use are run along the reverse of the fabric, so there is a definite right and wrong side when the project is complete. Many beginners look at the description of this method and panic, so don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. It’s really fairly simple.

Begin working your project in stockinette stitch. After five stitches, let the first color drop and pick up the project with the second color. Knit five stitches, then pick up the first color. Lather, rinse, repeat. You should never go more than five stitches without using one of the colors, otherwise you risk tangling that first strand or pulling it too tightly and encouraging puckers in your work. When you turn your work and begin to purl, you’ll be facing the stranded side. Just continue as usual.

If you decide to get daring and work more than five stitches in one color, you need to twist your work. This doesn’t really involve twisting at all. Instead, it just means that you catch the color you’re stranding into your active stitch every four or five stitches to keep it from tangling or getting too loopy. Run the stranding piece through the loop your yarn usually makes when knitting or purling, then continue the stitch as usual. After that, you can continue stranding for another four or five stitches and then twist again. Come, let’s twist again! Twistin’ time is here! That Chubby Checker association is almost impossible to resist, isn’t it?

Intarsia Knitting

Intarsia knitting is another colorful style of knitting. This time each color will be loaded onto an individual bobbin or wound into a small ball before you begin the project. Your best bet is to wind a separate bobbin for each block of color, not for each color in the project. This way the bobbins don’t pull on your work and become a pain to handle.

To start, cast and then purl with your first color. When you want to change colors, drop the first color’s strand and twist (it’s coming back to haunt you) the second color into the first. Keep purling with the second color. When you want to use the knit stitch, make sure you’re twisting in the back of the work (the purl side) so you don’t see the additions.

Patchwork Knitting

This is exactly what it sounds like – many knit pieces in different shapes, sizes, and colors pieced together to form patchwork garments or projects. You join the pieces the same way you join seams on sweaters or anything else, so this seemingly complex idea is really quite simple. Try an experiment in patchwork knitting by making something simple, like a blanket. Use butcher-block paper to create a pattern for your blanket, and as you create each knit piece cut a separate piece of paper in that shape. Lay all of the knit pieces onto the pattern paper like a puzzle, piecing them together as you go. You may have to work in the opposite order as you’re closer to finishing, cutting the paper pattern for a piece first, then knitting it. Once the paper blanket pattern is completely assembled, you can work on assembling your knit pieces. This method is also referred to as modular knitting since you can add on to the pieces whenever you want.

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