Patricia Paulson I am interested in how the knitting is done and after having been an English Flicker all my life as that is how my mother knit, not letting go of the needle, I did the same. I learned Continental but never could get my purls in balance with my knits as I could with my English style. But I discovered Combined and my purls were now happy purls. I actually began my interest with making Entrelac and so I did not have to turn the work constantly, I knit backwards, but I didn't change hands with the work, but knitting backwards keeping the yarn in the right hand is the way the Combined stitches work. So I had to learn to do this with my Left hand and so this is how I knit Continental. My English method is not slow as when you Flick you can zoom along but I wanted to be able to knit as fast with the yarn in my left hand so I did what I did knitting backwards and sat in front of a mirror and discovered the way they say you shouldn't do your purls makes the best looking purls. Well, I knit for enjoyment and for it looking good and if other don't like it, that is their choice to not see that the results look great and better than when I try to do it "their way". Perhaps it has something to do with the mechanics of my hands, but it just feels more natural to me. Yes, the knitting police has told me "You are doing it all wrong". This happened in a doctors office. So I asked if the woman was a knitter and then I asked what style she knits, she did not know, just that I was so obviously "wrong". So I knit my English Flicking and asked if that was her style, "NO!", and knit backwards in that and that was not her style either, so I knit Continental and that was not her style either. I did not do English Throwing because it is awkward feeling for me and at the time I did not know how to do Portuguese knitting. I find that one interesting but I do not care to do it for a long period of time and my neck gets "yarn burn" nor wearing a pin and damaging my clothes either. Yes, I agree, that Combined knitting is quite practical. Even if the Knitting Police would like you to just go away. My motto: get more done with fingers that don't get achey.

@@courag1 Whatever works for you and creates good looking knitting pieces is the “right” way! Knitting police be damned!!!🥸

The twisting of the purl stitches is fairly obvious when knitting ribbing in the round. You have twisted ribbing of one side and regular on the other side. It doesn’t bother me, so I just knit with twisted purls, they’re on the inside and it doesn’t change the appearance of the front side (in my hands at least). But it’s interesting to learn how to not twist them. And if I want twisted ribbing in the round I just have to knit with the inside facing me !

I’m pretty sure I do this too!

Me too Cianna! - except it's been 50+ years and many hours of trying to figure out what I'm doing 'wrong' trying to follow stitch instructions. Thank you for the vindication and the much needed insight Chilly Dog!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

I do this also.

Me too, I'm self taught as well

I was taught to knit when I was seven years old and never did much of it (I found crocheting to be much easier). Then, about twenty years ago, when I was around forty, I decided to give knitting a try again because I was finding such beautiful sock patterns to knit. The only problem was the "weird" way I had learned to knit made it hard to follow instructions in books or learn from other knitters. Turns out that I learned combination knitting as a Continental knitter!

Laura Hill hhj

My grandmother who is Italian, also taught me to knit this way.

It is the same in Iran. I think it's so much more difficult to wrap the yarn counterclockwise while purling, because you have to use either the middle or the index finger to control the working yarn. But in the way shown in this video (combination methode), no need to use an extra finger

Yes. I knit like this. I learned from my mother I could never understand why people found purling so difficult b

My grandmother, also from Sweden, taught me how to knit when I was around 8. I found out today that it’s called combination knit what she did. She was left handed (continental) so it was a bit tricky to figure everything out and I ended up twisting my stitches without knowing. Later I switched to ”regular” purl stitching and went with it from there on. I’m so glad to have been reminded of this way of knitting that introduced me to it, I can still vividly picture my grandmother and I sitting by the candlelit table on the evening of Christmas many years ago, her teaching me something that would come to be a significant part of my life.

Its so confusing to me that all these youtubers have a million ways of purling and no one does it like me and all the knitters I know here i Denmark. We knit continental and when purling, take the string, then go opposite into the stich, go around to catch the string again and pull it through. Its fast(er?), we dont have to switch finger or yarn placement and once you learn to do it correctly, it wont loosing the stitch...

Oh wow! This is a thing that has been really troubling me. I'm a crocheter, and for the most part I don't encounter this problem except for on Z spun yarns, but I definitely noticed when I was knitting. If I'm not mistaken things got loose. Z spun yarns tighten up when I'm crocheting, so I'm guessing that the... nope, I can't remember exactly how it goes. But I was definitely having either a too-tight problem or a too loose problem. With the yarn. Not the stitches. Well, to be honest, I was having problems with the stitches too but that's an entirely different problem. And when I think that this combination knitting might help. Because my knit stitches were tighter than my purl stitches, not because of the way the yarn was spun but because of the wrapping, I think. This makes sense to me. And if your point of using this method to keep the yarn from unspinning or from spinning too tight actually works, this may fix a bunch of my issues. I wonder if I could adjust this method for crochet and get away with using Z spun yarns!? I'm going to try it.

So true! That's why many people call it the Leading leg and not the Front leg

I wish I had thought of that reason when I made this video, because you definitely can feel a difference between the knits and purls, which could make it easier to knit without watching. Happy knitting! 💖

Me too Heather, I learned to continental knit from Fb and do it just this way.

Same!

Me too, could never work out why twisted stitches and knit-through-back-loop just didn't work 🤣

I have found there are few people who knit this way we should start a support group. I am in a couple of knitting groups but the instructors dont knit this way so working on a project with the group is a little harder to fallow for me. I end up fiddling with things longer and getting frustrated about it

@@deleahcortes3027 Hi, there is a group on the Ravelry website for combination knitters that discusses all the pros, cons and work-arounds. Combination knitting is ABSOLUTELY the most ergonomically efficient way to create stocking-stitch, but you CAN'T use it for everything, because it doesn't always mount the stitches on the current working row correctly for what you need on the next row, for example in rib stitch: you don't want the stitches oriented differently on the next row because you will be repeating the same knit or purl above the previous one. My approach is to use different techniques to solve different problems, so the ribbing on my sock will be continental Western OR Eastern, and if my hands get tired or I get bored, I will go over to English style. The stocking-stitch foot and sole will be Continental combination knit-through-back-loop, purl-thru-front. It would be great to see a written guide to exactly what combi-knitting can and can't do. Oh well, project no. 6790372!

I had never thought about using combination knitting for dark yarns, but that's genius! Thanks for sharing your tip.

I just taught a friend how to purl Portuguese style because she always grumbles about how she hates purling. She was happily stunned because it is so much faster and easier. Happy knitting

Chris Reeske I’m a newbie knitter and knit stitch well continental style, but purling is too awkward, so for a ribbing pattern I have to set the right needle secure in my lap and work more like a lever. In this video it showed her doing the combination in the ribbing, so I’m a little confused as to why some are saying they don’t use it for the ribbing,that it won’t come out right...Is it because they weren’t going in through the knit stitch at the bottom of needle?

I purl Portuguese style too when working a large area. It keeps my stitches tighter since I always seem to purl loosely. I do like to purl the way shown in the video as well.

Chris Reeske try Norwegian knitting combined with Continental pearling

For 14 years, I've been doing it the hard way! I'm a English knitter. Would like to become an Continental knitter. Self taught myself to knit out of a book! So proud of myself!!!!!!!

Ann McNew I leaned this way from a Japanese lady.

Same here Ann, this is how I learned it in Germany and I was taught to use the left to control the yarn, so there is no flipping and/or pushing it down with the fingertip. It is faster and I don't even have to look at it while knitting.

You still work the purl stitches counterclockwise, though, even with "German" style knitting. At least that's how we were taught at school. (Knitter from Germany here - been knitting like that all my life, and while the combination method is explained very well here it just unnecessarily complicates things, at least for me.)

What little instruction I got was from a German friend of my mum, I have been combination knitting all my life

I knit this way as well. The closet I can find to my style is Russian knitting on Instagram. It’s fast and the tension is even. Great patterns available on Instagram.

Combination knitting is definitely not wrong, but in the US, Western knitting is customary. It's the way patterns are written how most tutorials are demonstrated. I understand how that could feel frustrating, though.

Same thing happened here😂😅

same, i just always wrap from the outside to the inside

Same here, I learned this way from my grandma and I’ve seen a few other continental knitters do this as well

I thought this is how all continental knitters did it. Learned from my grandmother too.

FeMkE67 Me to lol ?

just seems like common sense to me.

You make me smile! I wish more knitters accepted the idea that the "right" way isn't necessarily the ONLY way. It's useful to understand the nuances of different methods and styles because they all have their own advantages and disadvantages. Happy knitting :)

Exactly! People have always marveled how I can knit without looking, it's because I can feel the direction of the stitch.

Most Polish knitters knit Russian (sometimes called "Eastern European") method. It's the least complicated and the fastest method.

my mother taught me to knit English style as a child an Ukrainian friend taught to knit this way, she said it is called Russian style. as a crocheter and knitter i find this method easier because i hold the yarn while crocheting and knitting the same way.