From: ral3@quads.uchicago.edu (sheila kae ralston)
Subject: Re: Double Ended Crochet Hook Patterns
Reply-To: ral3@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 15:34:04 GMT

In article <1992Oct29.115256.12110@cc.tut.fi> satu@cc.tut.fi (Saarinen Satu) writes:
>But what really caught my eye
>was this Continental style knitting. So could somebody  describe differences 
>in European and American techniques, I'd like to try the other one. (American
>I think...) 

	I came across a more detailed description of the two styles
that you can understand without diagrams, so I thought I'd post it.
It's from _Knitting in the Old Way_ by Priscilla A Gibson-Roberts.

	"There are two basic methods in knitting: the English-American
style with the yarn carried in the right hand, and the
Continental-German system, with the yarn carried in the left.  The
results of both systems are identical.  Each has its advantages: the 
knit stitch is simpler in the Continental style, while the purl stitch
is simpler in the English style.  In flat knitting on long unsupported
needles which are common today, the Continental method is somewhat
less awkward than the English, but the original English method in
which a knitting belt supported the needles was very efficient, with
speeds up to 200 stitches per minute possible!  With circular needles,
which need no support, the choice of which system to use is a matter
of personal preference.  The two methods have lived side by side in
Europe for centuries, and among folk knitters, both are often worked
within the same garment ...

	"The English Method.  To knit in the English manner, hold the
yarn in the right hand, tensioning it on the fingers.  My favorite
method is to pass it over the first and third fingers, and under the
second and fourth, for tensioning.  To work a knit stitch, insert the
right needle into the bottom of the first stitch on the left needle
from front to back, pass the yarn around the point of the right needle
from right to left, and draw it forward through the stitch to form a
new stitch.  To work a purl stitch, with the yarn in front of the
work, insert the right needles into the top of the first stitch on the
left needle from back to front, pass the yarn from right to left
around the point and draw it through the stitch away from you to form
a new stitch.

	"The Continental Method.  In Continental knitting, hold the
yarn in the left hand and tension it around the other fingers.  I
tension by wrapping it twice around my forefinger.  To work a knit
stitch, insert the right needle front to back from below, as in the
English method; but since the yarn is directly behind the stitch, pass
the point over the yarn and scoop it up and forward through the stitch
to form a new stitch.  For a purl stitch, the yarn is held in front by
moving the left forefinger toward you.  The needle is passed from
back to front through the loop on the needle, the point swings over
the yarn and scoops it downward and back through the stitch to form a
new stitch.  Both stitches, particularly the purl, require supple
wrist action, rather than the finger or arm action of the English
method."  

	As someone has probably already mentioned in the thread on
multicolor knitting (I haven't read it yet), many knitting instructors
advise that you learn both methods if you are going to do a lot of 
fair-isle type, stranded color knitting, since then you can hold one 
strand in the right and the other in the left, instead of having to 
constantly drop and pick up the different colors of yarn.

		Hope this helps--Sheila



			

-- 
Sheila Ralston
ral3@midway.uchicago.edu