Holding sock yarn, continental

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nutty4Knitting on May 28, 2012 at 2:19pm

I hold my yarn the way Maven Knits shows in the series of three photos at the top of the picture section.  These photos show two different ways of wrapping the yarn to achieve tension while knitting. 

The top three pictures show how you wrap the yarn around the pinky for tension, then run under the next two fingers and over the index finger.

The bottom two show threading the yarn through the three fingers and then wrapping around the index finger for tension.

Hope this can clear things up for you. 

It helps for me that I'm right handed and I was a croceter for many years before I began to knit.  If you know someone who crochets right handed, they could show you in person.

Permalink Reply by Elsie W. on May 28, 2012 at 2:37pm

I hold the yarn like this: http://youtu.be/XuRLFl36tDY

Permalink Reply by Annie Janes on May 28, 2012 at 3:07pm

I have always knitted continental-style.  I hold my yarn the way the first photo on the left shows in mavenknits. I don't like to wrap yarn around a finger--it doesn't slide smoothly for me the way it does when I just run the yarn between fingers and control the tension by tightening the first 3 fingers just the right amount. 

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on May 28, 2012 at 3:23pm

Wish I could help, Sue, but I don't knit continental.

Permalink Reply by Susan Leibowitz on May 28, 2012 at 3:27pm

I open my palm face up and put the yarn between my ring and pinky fingers. Then I draw the yarn up and rotate my hand toward me wrapping the yarn over and then behind my pointer finger. Then I hold the left needle between my thumb and middle finger. My pointer finger is away from the other fingers giving me space to pick. I tension my yarn for crochet the same way.

Learning to tension the yarn is not automatic....it takes time to find the way that works for you. If you need to wrap it around your pointer finger twice until you get the knack...do it. Play with the yarn, try different configurations and let your fingers speak to you.

Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on May 29, 2012 at 5:57am

I knit Continental, and the only thing I do differently is I wrap the yarn around my hand once for thinner yarn. Actually, lace-DK. For worsted and up, I just let it slide between my fingers.
Both of your demos are sort of fiddly for me.

If you're interested, you can check out the blog post of mine, where I show how I do it. I learned in Austria.

Permalink Reply by Sue Mohr on May 29, 2012 at 7:11pm

Thank you all!  Elsie, I think the way you hold it might work for me.  I've been practicing with it, and it works better than previous methods I've tried.  And Peggy, wow!  I'm going to have to study your photos.  That's a new way of holding the yarn that I'm going to have to digest.  It looks really interesting!