I've been told I knit weird. I see how other people I know knit, and I have noticed two things:
- The technique I use looks nothing like their technique.
- My way is a heck of a lot faster.
My final product looks no different than your typical knit item so, you would think that a faster way to complete a piece would be wildly embraced but nothing could be farther from the truth. To make matters worse every How-to knitting book I've ever seen says that my way is wrong and that my stitches face the wrong way i.e. are "twisted". I guess you could say I'm a twisted stitcher *groan.
Anyway until recently, I thought I was the only freak that knit this way but thanks to the internet I've discover that there are other twisted stitchers out there. I've even learned that this style of knitting has a name - Combination knitting. If you are from North America, England or Europe most likely the style of knitting that you use is called Western No Cross. There are two ways to do this the most common in England and North America is called "English". The English hold the working yarn in their right hand and wrap the yarn to make a stitch. The other western style is called either "Continental" or "German" depending who you ask. It is exactly the same as English except the continental knitters hold the yarn in their left hand and pick at the working yarn.
Being that both English and Continental are called western I'll bet you've already guessed that there is also a style called Eastern. Bingo! I am not exactly familiar with this style accept to say that, the movements are in the opposite to those of the western style.
So what is Combination then? It is kind of like a knitting love-in. It uses some aspects of both western and eastern knitting techniques. I like to think of at as taking the best of both worlds.
The sweater is almost finished. I actually had to knit the front section two and a half times before I got it right. Maybe it's the time of year and all the distractions of the holiday season but I couldn't maintain my concentration, so mistakes kept happening.
The past couple months haven't been conducive for getting much knitting done but I'm back at it with gusto! I found this pattern a few months ago and fell in love with it. It is technically a summer knit project but I think that it will look awesome as a vest over top a turtle neck. It is currently a work in progress but at least progress is being made! The poor project was sitting there collecting dust for nearly a month before I picked up the needles again to work on it. I finished the back last week and I am about a third of the way done the front.
