Now I understand why my knitting through the back loop makes my stockinette just right and not twisted as some American tutorials says it is twisted. I tried knitting through the front loop and turns out twisted and never knew why my way of knitting comes out differently than many American knitters out there. You’re the first one who actually explains this *leading leg* factor! Thank you so much 🤍
Thanks Roxanne, I just love the clarity of your teaching and your openmindedness. You do all this never saying one thing is better than another, just explainning how it works. Bravo !
Thank you for this. I tried to Google why my stitches in the round worked up differently then flat to no avail. I ended up just adapting and changed the way I insert the needle into the loop. I'm happy to have found some technical videos that have illustrated that it's not just the direction you inset the needle (back of loop VS front of loop) but also the direction you wrap the yarn that makes a difference. Can't wait to experiment with different directions to get a better sense of how it effect the result fabric.
Great info. I am a self taught knitter much more experienced in crochet so I automatically ended up being a combination continental knitter. I realized pretty quickly but I have been remounting my stitches for decreases because I didn't know there was another way.... Thanks.
I'm a western knitter and just watched this out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. I love how you broke it down so clearly, for each of the different stitches. I now understand WHY the k2 is right leaning and the ssk is left leaning, and how the sk2p works! I'm loving all the technical info you add to my knitting. Thanks for all your hard work, Roxanne!
I have been knitting all my life like that and I thought I probably learned wrong as a child, as everyone around me knits the western or continental way. I was very confused for years, thinking I must be doing it wrong. It’s very comfortable and ergonomic to knit this way. I tried changing but once you learn to knit the eastern method, no other way is comfortable.
This one got saved to “my favorite knitting “. Incidentally, after 4 years of RU-vid, 9 of the 12 I have saved (of hundreds watched) are yours. Love your relevance and clarity.
I'm a crocheter who's interested in starting to knit. Deciding on knitting style now. Think I have needles picked l out when I can afford them. Thanks for this. I joined the group to learn.
This was great, not only for the Eastern/Western demos, but also to show all those different kinds of decreases in one place. I hope you plan on doing another similar video on increases.
Excellent description of the difference in the stitch mounts! I’m a combination knitter, but also a left handed knitter! So not only are my “previous row-purls” mounted Eastern style, all my increases and decreases lean the opposite direction! Understanding the reason for different decreases and the results and how to fix them has been very helpful!
Super helpful video! I just discovered (after 20 years of knitting) that I'm an Eastern and Russian knitter, so this is just perfect timing! Your other video helped me realize how I knit, and this one is helping me learn how to fix it.
I’m a combo knitter, which I figured out (eventually) when I started doing some lace work and all my decreases were the opposite of what the pattern called for... Since then, remounting stitches has become my superpower. However, I’ve never done a cdd by knitting the first stitch. I’ll give it a try! Thanks.
Thank you soooo much for doing this!! I need to watch a few times to really learn but this is the first explanation that demonstrates so clearly what to do, and more importantly why and what the effect is. As someone else has said, it’s pure gold. Off now to practice my knitting with fresh understanding!
Oh my gosh. Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know that I’m a combination knitter. I’ve just always said that I am a continental style knitter; I just knit the way my grandma showed me when I was a little girl. I never thought about the mount of the stitch. You one of the best teachers I’ve seen. Thank you so much. I’m learning a lot from your videos.
I was wrapping knits counter clockwise, but purls wrap clockwise. My sister also learned from our grandma and does the same as I. Last week I was explaining it to my sister. Then, I made a little swatch wrapping my purls the two different ways. I can see a difference now that I look for it. I am going to try to change my purling, but I’ve been knitting for 60 years It’s gonna take some concentration !
This is how my aunt knits. I couldn't do decent decreases when showing her methods i usually use. Now i can understand these stitches' working mentality. Thank you so much
Such a great video. Too late for me though. I struggled for a long time and finally discovered that I was doing the eastern mount. Now I just readjust like you demonstrated or change how I knit to western mount if there are a lot of decreases.
This video is a godsend. I learned how to knit eastern style and have never been able to follow instructions in the U.S. Also, I learned only one way to do a double reduction and know I know more than one way. I refuse to learn how to knit American style as I think it is a huge waste of time and motions.
I started with combination knitting without knowing it and in the beginning got all my decreases wrong. after I found out my stitches were mounted differently than what the patterns were assuming, I tried to adjust but found that very finicky, especially with shawls that have a lace mesh with k2tog throughout the whole row. I also tried changing the lace mesh to right leaning decreases but that also caused me problems in the pattern. After going through all that I resorted to learning western style purling to use whenever I am doing lace
Very interesting video Roxanne. I do have one question though. I can understand how some people are taught the eastern way and others the western way. What I don’t understand is why some are taught a combination of both. It may sound like a stupid question but I just don’t get it. Not that there is anything wrong with it. I would think that one style would be taught, not Eastern for knits and western for purls. I have seen eastern knitting videos. I was taught western so I stick with that. This video will be very helpful for those who are eastern or combination knitters for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Not everyone is taught to knit by other people. Many knitters are self taught, and even for those that take a class or are taught by a relative, they aren't always taught that the direction of the yarn around the needle makes a difference. My niece ended up as a combination knitter (her mother taught her, but doesn't knit combination), and she twisted her sts every other row when knitting flat, not realizing she was doing it, until I pointed it out. She had taught many of her friends to knit that way, again, not noticing the effect. Knitters may end up as combination knitters because they discover that it's easier to wrap/pick in the opposite direction (based on how they are handling the yarn and needles) or they assume that since purls are the "opposite" of knits, that they should wrap opposite. Or they come to knitting from crochet, and automatically wrap clockwise. Some knitters deliberately take on combination knitting because it improves their knitting tension, particularly when knitting flat (their knit and purl gauges are not the same, and eastern purling improves it).
See? I knew you’d have the answer! Did your niece continue as a combination knitter after you pointed that out to her? Your answer makes perfect sense! Thank you for your detailed explanation. I’m no longer confused. 😄
She was visiting me at the time, on her spring break, and we were at my knitting group. We had swapped knitting, just to break up the monotony of our projects, and as I was working on hers, I noticed the mix of western and eastern mounted sts and said, "Oh, you're a combination knitter!" and then I looked at the fabric and saw the twisted stitches. I explained what was going on, and told her that in order to get untwisted sts, she could either adapt how she was entering the stitches that were eastern mounted (and learn another set of decreases) or she could change the way she picked her purls so that all her sts were always mounted western. She decided to change her purls to western, but she was very worried about all the people she had taught to knit! She didn't have any trouble changing her purls (some knitters do), and thought that was a simpler solution. It never matters to me which choice a knitter makes. I just want them to understand what's going on so that they can get the *result* they expected/wanted.
What a great story Roxanne! Thanks for sharing it! I agree, it doesn’t matter as long as it works for them. You can rest assured that you’ve put out a great and quite interesting tutorial on this issue. I learn so much from you. Now I can direct people to your channel if I ever encounter someone with this issue. Your poor niece worrying about everyone else she taught to knit. How thoughtful! Everyone in my knitting group is a thrower. My teacher can knit Continental but she despises the Continental purl. It’s funny. We are all different. Thanks again!💕
Thea, the reason, for me at least, is the easy and ergonomic PURL! Knitting a 1x1 ribbing is a piece of cake using combination knitting. I need the most ergonomic method due to hand damage from 25 years of court reporting. I demo the ease of combination here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xnPesmBWB-I.html
The only increase I can think of that would be different for an Eastern knitter (or Combo knitter knitting flat) would be the kfb increase. The others are all worked the same. A combo knitter working in the round would work a kfb the same way as a western knitter.
Thanks so much! My sister knits Eastern style. When she knit a Norwegian sweater in the round her sweater seemed to be slanted much like on a bias. Why was that? I wondered if she had knitted so tightly that we could see the ‘spiral’ of the knit in the round but she was told that it was because she knitted Eastern style ( her instructor by the way told her she was knitting incorrectly)
If she was knitting eastern *and* knitting through the front of the stitch (the trailing leg) that would have caused all the sts to be twisted, and could have caused biasing. As long as you work the stitch through the leading leg, it won't twist, regardless of how your sts are mounted or how you bring the yarn around the needle.
@@RoxanneRichardson thanks. I just did try this the other day and found the Eastern mount didn’t twist the stitches, in the round. I think that’s what you’re saying. I suspect then the the teacher may have had her compensating somehow?! With Eastern I have heard it described as twisting on the purl and untwisting on the knit( or maybe that’s the other way around !!) so perhaps my sister twisted a round and untwisted the next. Either way it’s terrible that her teacher/store owner insisted she didn’t know how to knit correctly. we both learned then to knit western style and completely messed up our gauge, making our purls elongated. Horrible advice from the store owner! Thanks for the video. These decreases-are exactly what my sister and I were talking about the other day!!
@@maureenlewicki437 Teachers can only teach what they know, so if what they know is western knitting, then what they will teach is how to "correct" the student's knitting by having them switch to western knitting. Stitches aren't twisted while they are on the needle. They have to sit sideways, regardless of whether that puts the leading leg on the front or back of the needle. How you insert your needle through the stitch determines whether or not it will come off the needle twisted. I've done several videos in the past few months that discuss the issues knitters can have when they have eastern mounted sts, but are following western knitting instructions. There is a playlist of those videos on my channel, if you're interested.
I learnt that i knitt in eastern way , but there are a lot of eastern ways on internet and non of them are the same ! Is this kind of Eastern knitting have any spacial name so i can find relevent topics or examples of it more easily ? And would you please teach us how to join new yarn or skin yarn in Estern knitting ? I actually knitt like i do rib knitting 1×1 in Easrern way but i would do that in combo like in one row which is the right side of the project i knitt the knitt stitch clockwise but for the next row which is the wrong side of the project i knitt the knitt stitch in counter clockwise , do you know any way how to join new skin of yarn in this method of knitting please ?!
thank you! but personnaly, I always grab my yarn couterclock when knitting, and clockwise when purling... does it change enything for all the decreases? I'm allways struggeling thith lacy patterns!!
If the yarn is going around the needle clockwise while purling, then on the knit rows, the sts will have an Eastern mount, and that's when you'd need these sorts of decreases. (The direction the yarn goes around the needle is defined by how it goes around the needle from the perspective of looking at the point of the needle.) Regardless, it's the way the sts are mounted when you need to work the decrease that determines whether or not you need to do something different than what standard instructions indicate.
Great info as always! I noticed that sometimes u wrap the yarn clockwise. Is that in keeping with the eastern version of knitting? Overall a have a much greater understanding of what is happening with these decreases. Now I can figure out other knitting situations because of a great understanding of how knitting works. Thank you!
Yeah, I wrapped Eastern when working the decreases when sts were mounted eastern. Combination knitters are more likely to wrap western, but they also vary as to whether their sts are mounted eastern or western, depending on whether they are knitting flat vs in the round. How the st is wrapped while working the decrease doesn't affect how to enter/slip/remount the sts.
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