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Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Another Knitting Technique (Kitas Mezgimo Būdas)

Yesterday I posted a few pictures from an old Lithuanian knitting book showing the basic knit and purl stitches and left- and right- slanting decreases using the Combination method of knitting. I wanted to add one additional interesting technique and a general note.

Right slanting decrease, not twisted
lithuanian ssk

This would be k2tog in American knitting, or to reverse it for combination knitting would be ssk. But in this case only the second stitch is turned around. The first stitch, which will be the bottom stitch in the decrease and hidden, is not turned.

Knit stitch in Garter
lithaunian garter stitch
This is how you knit in Garter stitch, which is the same as in American knitting because the leading leg of the stitch is in front of the needle, since there are no purl rows to turn the stitches around.

This confused the hell out of me when I was a teenager and I saw one of my friends knitting garter stitch booties. I never had knitted garter stitch. My grandmother taught me stockinette stitch first. It's really easy to learn for kids in this method. You just remember this:

Knit = back/back
Purl = front/front

That is, to knit, you hold the working yarn in the back, and you insert the right needle into the back of the stitch. To purl, you hold the working yarn in front, and you insert the right needle into the front of the stitch. I personally think this is a great way to teach kids to knit. Just make sure you tell them what's unusual about it before they go off trying to knit from "normal" knitting books so they don't get confused like I did!

Basically, to knit without twisting your stitches, you just always go into the leading leg of the stitch. It doesn't matter if it's in front of or behind the needle.

Posted by donna at 11:28:00. Filed under: Knitting

Comments

Thanks for the tip! I'm going to be teaching a 4 year old girl how to knit later this year and have been collecting tips like this.

Posted by Lola LB at Thursday, February 05, 2009 06:06:12

Those last two sentences could have saved me untold amounts of time staring at pictures and reading instructions that I simply could not wrap my brain around.

Thanks for the brilliance.

Posted by carlarey at Thursday, February 05, 2009 07:11:14

Lola, Oh, cool! I was really young when I learned how to knit. I think little kids have a much easier time with manual tasks -- or perhaps they just don't find it frustrating because everything is a manual dexterity challenge for them, so it just seems normal to struggle with learning new things.

Carlarey, :-) Sometimes the simple generalization is hard to come by when you are mired in the details. Can't see the forest for the trees, anyone?

Posted by donna at Thursday, February 05, 2009 07:34:17

Hi Donna,

I met you on Ravelry, talking about Eastern European knitting. I didn't know you were an author! I looked at your books and they look great. I love your simple explanations and fun illustrations. They make knitting more accessible to the ordinary person, I think. You remind me of Elizabeth Zimmerman with your no-nonsense, "you can do" this attitude. Thank you!

Posted by Jena at Thursday, February 05, 2009 08:52:24

Jena, wow. That's about the best compliment I could hope to receive! Thank you. And see you around on Ravelry. I'm addicted. :-)

Posted by donna at Thursday, February 05, 2009 09:00:44

I was taught by my grandmother, who had some Native American in her, and these tips that you have been leaving on blog is just how she taught me to knit.

I have had people tell me that I am knitting incorrectly and I have replied my comes out the way I want it to so I guess I am knitting or is the finished project just a figment of my imagination? Then they usually leave me alone.

My x-mother-in-law has changed the way she knits to my way because she says it faster then her way.

So I wanted to say thanks for blog...I am doing something right if there is a book about the way I knit.

Posted by Jinx at Thursday, June 04, 2009 05:40:25

Jinx, that's so interesting! I wonder who taught your grandmother how to knit. Do you know?

Posted by donna at Thursday, June 04, 2009 06:22:57

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