So many needles so little time...

There are so many different types of needles in the world of knitting; circular, straight, double pointed.  Not to mention materials that they're made out of.  It can be so daunting figuring out what to buy never mind what you should use.

When it comes to material that part is pretty simple.  There's really two things to consider there:

1.) Weight - metals tend to be heavier than the traditional bamboo.

2.) Drag - meaning does the yarn move quickly over the needle or does the needle's material cause friction as it passes along the shaft thereby slowing down the movement of the yarn.

As a general rule of thumb, metals tend to not have much drag.  Therefore your yarn move over them much quicker.  This is great when you are like me and like to knit quickly.  It's not so great if you can't control what's going on so well.  Woods, i.e. bamboo, tend to have some drag to them.  This can be a good thing.  Since it slows down the movement of the yarn along the shaft you decrease the chance of the next stitch jumping off the tip of your needle.  Thus resulting in your making a mad dash to try and grab it before it ladders it's way down your work.  Plastics are the other type of material that you can come across.  They tend to have drag as well and if they're poorly constructed can snag your yarn unpleasantly.  Personally, if I see plastic I skip right over that needle and move on.  

As far as weight goes, plastic tends to be quite light but as I said earlier not really worth it.  Bamboo needles are a comfortable weight but you do have that trade off that you lose some speed.  I should mention if you see that the bamboo needle is "carbonized" make sure you check how the yarn moves.  Carbonized needles tend to have a lot more drag because of the process they go through.  For the bamboo needles I have; I prefer the natural bamboo needles that are that lovely light tan color.  If you're in a Local Yarn Shop, don't be afraid to ask if they have a set that you can try out.  Lastly, we have metals.  The type of metal can make a difference as well as manufacturer.  Best advice I can give here is to again try them out.  If you pick them up and right away think "Wow, these are heavy." You most likely will find them not so great to work with.  I have some nickle plated needles nice, fairly light and the yarn just moves right along on them.  I also have my personal favorites the HiyaHiya Sharps.  They are stainless steel, incredibly light and super fast making them ideal for my personal preferences.

As far as the type of needle you need you really need to consider the project you are looking to make.  I find that if it can be done on a straight needle I can do it on a circular set of needles so I don't bother with straight needles.  If the project requires you to use circular needles you CAN NOT use straight needles so again, why am I bothering with having straight needles if they aren't multipurpose?  I'm sure by now you're seeing that I'm a fan of circular needles.  Even with my love of them there are times when they don't fit the bill 100% of the time.  When that's the case we move onto our double pointed needles (DPN).  If you're like me when you first saw them you thought "OOOO pick up sticks!"  DPNs allow you to span spaces in circular knitting that are just too small for your circulars to go such as the crest of a cap or fingers on glove or some points in making socks.  DPN's and circular both allow you to knit flat or in the round.  The difference between them is circulars can go into the bigger places where DPNs can't and DPNs can go to the tiny places where the circulars can't.  There is a helping hand relationship between the two in my view.  

Lastly, a note on circular needles... they come in different cord lengths so make sure you take into account the project you are making if you are buying ones that are a fixed length.  I just buy interchangeable circulars  and then I only had to purchase the appropriate length cords as the extra which was a lot cheaper than buying multiple sets of circulars in varying lengths.  This in turn gave me more money to spend on yarn!!  Let's face it we can never have a big enough stash of yarn!

What's the difference between a Knit and a Knit through the Back Loop?

To me, one of the greatest things about knitting is the subtle variations you create through simply changing the approach to a stitch.  We can see this when we look at a regular Knit Stitch and a Knit Through the Back Loop (KTBL).

Here are images of a knit stitch (bottom) and a ktbl (top):

As you can see the knit stitch (where the arrow marked "A") forms a nice neat horseshoe shape (or an upside down U).  The Ktbl (where tje arrow marked "B") actually has right leg oof the stitch crossing in front of the left leg giving it a twisted appearance.  Utilizing a Ktbl can provide some visual contrast to your work while also creating a slightly denser fabric.  It's a simple easy way to change things up without having to step too far outside of the box.

What do you mean Continental or English Style? Isn't Knitting, Knitting??

Writer's note: This blog post is written with the left handed knitter in mind.  To make it viable for a right handed knitter simply substitute the word right where you see left and left where you see right.

While there are many different forms of knitting from various regions around the world this article speaks from the Western Continental and English style perspective.

The first style we will talk about is English Style.  English Style, also known as "throwing" is where the knitting needle and the working yarn are held by the left hand while the right hand simply holds the knitting needle that has all of the stitches waiting to be worked.  In the English style of knitting the left hand will insert the tip of the left hand needle as appropriate for the stitch, wrap the yarn around the left hand needle in a clockwise manner, draw the yarn through the existing loop and then slide the old stitch off of the right hand needle.  The right hand is simply providing stability to the right hand needle.  This method is extremely useful for those who find using their right hand in any manner requiring fine motor control awkward or have limited dexterity in their right hand.  The drawback to this method is you are having to stop and start each time you are wrapping the yarn.

The second style, Continental, has the work being divided between the left and right hands.  The left hand is responsible for inserting the tip of the left hand needle into the stitch on the right hand needle; the right hand, which holds the right hand needle and the working yarn, then wraps the yarn as needed around the tip of the left hand needle in a clockwise manner.  Now, the left hand needle draws the loop through the existing stitch and slides the old stitch off of the right hand needle.  The benefit to having the right hand holding the working yarn is that you never have to have a break in your movements and provide an increase in overall knitting speed.  The draw back to this method is you do need to coordinate the movements between the two hands.

Here are video's showing making a knit stitch in both styles side by side:

                                                                    Continental                                                               

English

I predominantly utilize the Continental method of knitting.  In part that is because I have a background in crochet so the distribution of work between the two hands feel natural to me.  That does not mean Continental is the way for everyone.  There are times when I do utilize the English Style of knitting, such as when I am doing color work.  

My advice to any knitter is to try both and see which one works best for you and keep your mind open to the possibility that there may come a time when each would be useful.  As I say, they're your hands so go with what feels right for you!

Learning to Knit Left Handed! It CAN be Done!

     Being a life long lefty I have always had to search out how to convert any hand craft to a left handed perspective.  Whether it's embroidery, cross-stitch, crochet or knitting you can learn to do anything left handed no matter what the naysayers say.  Many people will tell you "Just learn how to do it right handed.  It'll be easier."  They're right, it will be easier.  FOR THEM.  Mind you, most of those individuals would never consider trying to do something left handed.  It just wouldn't feel natural to them; but project the assumption it would feel natural to us.  When you hear the do it right handed advice, I recommend that you smile and say "I'll consider that" and in your mind bank shot it right into the waste basket knowing, while they mean well, they are not taking into account the issues of: dexterity, visual perception, and cognitive processing.  They are also not realizing that it is the teacher who must learn adaptability to their student's learning needs and not the student who must adapt to the teacher's limitations.  I have learned to knit left and right handed in both Continental and English styles of knitting.  As a teacher it is my job to adapt to the students needs.  Not make them contort to my limitations.  Am I slower knitting right handed?  I sure am.  I'm not right handed.  I'm also slower when I knit English style left handed as I prefer Continental.  As a left handed person we become accustomed to automatically flipping things around in our mind since we live in a world that is customized for right handedness.  Personally, I think this makes us much more adaptive.  This adaptability makes us well suited to learning hand crafts and the subtleties within them.  Let's face it, the education field realized decades ago forcing a left handed child to learn to write right handed had no actual benefit.  Why do we keep on with that myth in crafting?  

     Learning to knit left handed has several benefits over forcing yourself to learn to knit right handed. First off, as a left handed knitter, you will come to understand the construction of your knitting much quicker than a right handed knitter.  Right handed knitters will, for the most part, simply recreate a pattern exactly as written.  Where as a left handed knitter very quickly learns when we knit a pattern exactly as written we do not get a reproduction of the pattern but a mirror image (and in some cases an inverse image.)  This makes us notice how certain stitches slant to the left or right for us but for a right handed knitter they slant in the opposite direction.  Why this happens is not important right now.  Just realizing that it does and which stitches go in that direction or the other sits in our minds.  We then realize in order to reproduce the pattern we will need to substitute certain stitches to do so.  This is something right handed knitters do not consider unless they begin to make their own patterns.  Who'd have thought being a lefty in a right handed world would be so educational?

          I realize this can sound a bit overwhelming at first.  The truth is, whether you're a left-handed or a right-handed we all start at the same place.  We learn a basic cast on, then the knit stitch followed by the purl stitch and then a cast off.  After that we learn the amazing variation in the textures we can create from alternating knit and purl stitches.  My advice is take your time learning in the manner that is comfortable for YOU.  Try both styles of knitting (Continental and English) from the left handed perspective.  See which one feels right for you and go from there.  Remember, in the end the hands are attached to your body not anyone else's.