I am so frustrated with my right selvedge!!!! When I took the Basics with Arenda she told me how to correct the problem...Wrapping the first and last stitch in the row in the opposite direction (for a purl) and then knitting through back of loop. When I read Dianna D's. response to Gary's question on pp. 2 she said to not go into the loop so much (I believe that was her advice). An article in another publication (which escapes my mind at the moment) said that I need to tighten my yarn on the selvedges...and Montse Stanley has me convinced that I am not tightening enough on my purl stitch. I have been doing a little bit of everything on each swatch that I have tried...trying to stick to the directions Arenda suggested. I am not having any luck. I am ready to become a right handed knitter...unless someone else has any other suggestions...this is the only stitch that is loose it is the second to the last stitch on the right selvedge...HELP!!!!

I suggest selecting the method that seems to make the most difference for you and then practice until you are satisfied with your results. There are many variables in individual knitting technique and what works for one person may make no difference, or make matters worse for another.

ok...I was reading Montse Stanley's book last night about this problem and she stated that I should be purling the same way I knit...Since I am a 'German Knitter' (she prefers this title to the 'continental Knitter' title...I was knitting with my index finger and purling with my thumb. I have now made a change and am purling with my index finger...it already looks better!!! It is a little awkward at the moment, but I am sure I will get the hang of it. Thanks KT...you were right. Just got to figure out what works best for me...thanks

I have tried several times to learn to knit with my left hand and I just can't get the hang of it. So I contiue with the American style of holding the yarn in my right hand. Maybe some day I'll try again because I've been told it's a faster way to knit. So far my gauge is much looser when I knit that way.
But I can see why if you hold the yarn with your index finger to knit, but your thumb to purl why you're having problems. Keep up with your new method and I think you'll see an improvement. The hard part is making your new knitting style a habit.
I don't off-hand remember all the advice I gave Gary, but I seem to remember his problem was that as he was making the first stitch of a row, he would pull the yarn tight and this gave him a selvedge that had long and short stitches on the edge. So then he couldn't pick up stitches evenly because the short stitches were basically knots instead of stitches. It also prevented him from sewing nice seams.

Diana, there are studies that show it is not faster (according to Richard Rutt). And it is more prone to tension problems.

(I've never told a continental knitter they should change methods--we all should knit whatever way is comfortable. But I've run into a lot of continental-style knitters who say "it's the ONLY good way...," and that's just not true.)

I have tried to make the switch as well to American style...it is always a futile attempt. But I keep thinking it would make the most sense seeing as how I am NOT left handed! I learned to knit from my mother-in-law after I married her wonderful son...(Normally I would make a funny comment about a left hander teaching a right hander to knit and throw in something about how she was upset that he married me...but my brain isn't working again ). Anyway, it is super quick and my hands don't ever leave the needles. When I was using my thumb as opposed to my index finger, my travel time was considerably longer and more tedious than it is now. Thus the reasoning for a long/short/jagged 2nd to right selvedge. I have seen some women knit in this 'German' style before and like the American style for me, it is an artform...absolutely beautiful, elegant, and graceful. I am truly captivated by knitting in any style...I see American style knitting and I can't take my eyes away...I see German style knitting and I can't take my eyes away. Anywho, I hope to perfect this method as I continue on this journey!!! It is truly a captivating artform!

Is there spell-check on this thing???

Peggy - I love people like that!!! Insist that their way is THE BEST!!! I like to observe them in everyday life...it is a treat for people watchers like myself!!!

Spranger, I think it's good to learn various ways--options are a great thing! So I did learn continental, as well as left-handed English, along with the right-handed English I started out with. And I've made a few (so far half-hearted) attempts at knitting backward (knitting from left to right instead of turning the work and purling a row). It's sort of fun and sometimes useful. But on the whole I like to knit the way I first learned--that's probably true for a lot of people!

I learned to knit holding the yarn in my right hand. I could never manage tensioning the yarn around my fingers, despite many efforts. I also anchor the right needle at the junction of my hip and thigh, and I tension the yarn against my palm, using my ring and pinky fingers.

For a long time, I knit happily this way. I did tend to dislike knitting in the round because I either couldn't anchor the circ/dpn or I had to anchor it in such a way that my hand position was not where I liked. Also, dpns can gouge a hole in your leg.

Eventually, I learned to hold the yarn in my left hand for the purposes of stranded knitting, and then when I started knitting socks, I really got the hang of continental knitting. Because my hand and needle positions are so different for my method of anchoring/throwing than for Continental, I have not been an enthusiastic stranded knitter. I also found I had a terrible time doing Continental purl, but I could manage Norwegian purl (it's a lot of needle manipulation, but it produces fabulous ribbing for me). In the past six months or so, I discovered I actually can Continental purl, but I only find it quick and easy if I'm doing a stitch pattern that requires a lot of switching between knits and purls. If I have an entire row of purling to do, I will hold the yarn in my right hand and throw even if it means impaling my thigh with a short, sharp dpn.

This past spring I took a class with Sally Melville where we were doing color knitting and holding a strand of yarn in each hand. Most of the students were learning for the first time to knit with the yarn in their "other" hand. I showed her how my two styles of knitting were incompatible. She watched me knit for about 15 seconds and then showed me what I needed to do in order to tension the yarn around my right fingers so that I could hold the needles the same way whether I was working with the left hand yarn or the right hand yarn. It was at that moment that I had the epiphany about what I had been doing wrong all those years when I attempted to knit with the right hand without anchoring the needle. I had thought the problem had to do with the actual tension in the yarn, but it turned out to be the *position* of the yarn as I completed a stitch that was the key.

When you knit Continental, the working yarn is held above the stitches and to the left. When you knit English/American the working yarn is held below the stitches and to the right. I had always tried to hold the yarn in my right hand over a straightened index finger so that the yarn was above the needles as I completed a stitch. That is, as a mirror to my Continental yarn hold. When I knit with my anchoring method, the yarn was naturally held in the correct position when I tensioned the yarn against my palm and held the needles with my fingers.

The source of my difficulty when tensioning yarn around my right fingers was that I tended to keep my index finger elevated (like with Continental), rather than bending my index finger as I held the needles, so that the yarn was held lower.

I still prefer my 20+ year old method of knitting flat, but it was incredibly wonderful to finally figure out what I was doing wrong and why! Now I can knit stranded designs in a much more efficient, rhythmic way. I love having a variety of methods and techniques available to me so that I can switch to which ever one works best in a given situation.

This is so awkward, but the results are noticeable, in a good way. Someone please encourage me to keep on keeping on...it is worth it..I know it.

And as for Peggy and Rox, I think it is truly amazing that you can implement a different variety of techniques in your knitting...I would love to sit and watch you knit for an afternoon!

It really is worth keeping at it. If you work on a smallish project in the new method, by the time you finish, you should be fairly competent.

Oh, do keep on! Though it feels awkward now, it will seem quite natural in time if you stick with it.

Rox, that's amazing, that you found after such a long time that you needed to modify your technique. I agree, though, that having a variety of methods to hand is a great asset.

Spranger, keep on keeping on. Like I said before, the hardest part is doing it enough to become a habit. Once you do, you'll be fine.

Peggy, I'm glad to know that the Continental method isn't really any faster, although I would like to get better at it. I can knit decently (but slowly) enough, but purling is still awkward. Stranded knitting right now consists of first one color, then another color in my right hand, dropping the old as I pick up the new from underneath. Slowwwww! Maybe learning to knit lefty will help with that.

Diana, I found that knitting with both hands was pretty intuitive -- have you given it a try?

You say picking up the new color from underneath. That's often correct for intarsia (Arenda's article in Cast On recommends picking it up *over* sometimes--depends on whether the color change goes vertically or diagonally in the work). But for stranded color, you want to have the colors held consistently (e.g., the background strand always goes over the other strand, and the other always goes under the background strand).

Like PeggyR says,
for stranded knitting, you want one of the strands always *over*, the other always *under*. This keeps the strands from twisting and establishes one color as "dominant" -- because it's stitches will consistently be slightly larger than the other's -- usually the lower strand, but depends on each knitter's technique.