Knitting Without Turning

If you learned to knit the way I did, then you work across a right side row, turn and work across the wrong side. I have been knitting this way since I was 4 years old. 

For years, I would throw the yarn. The yarn would be over my right hand index finger, under the next two fingers and then over my pinky. To make a stitch, I would lift my index finger an wrap the yarn around the needle. 

I then moved from the 'throw' method to the Continental method. The yarn would be over my index finger of my left hand, under the two middle fingers, and over the pinky. I would insert the right hand needle into the stitch, grab the yarn from my left hand index finger with the needle and make the stitch in one motion. This method seemed quicker and more fluid to me. It became my knitting method of choice.

I guess the next step was combining the two when I was doing color knitting. I would hold one yarn in the left hand and the other in the right, moving between throwing and Continental.

Time went by and I got older. With age, my right wrist wasn't as cooperative anymore. It would get very sore doing Continental and I would have to revert back to throwing. Eventually I stopped using Continental all together and 50 years after I first learned, I am back to throwing full time. 

Last year, in January, after I had finished my newsletter article, I decided to reward myself and buy the pattern and supplies for the Koigu Oriental Jacket. The jacket is comprised of garter stitch squares in three sizes. The knitter starts with one square, and keeps building. There is now sewing involved. One square just gets added on and so on. Some of the squares are very small and others are quite large.

As the jacket started building, I began to get annoyed with turning the fabric on the small squares. It would take me longer to turn the jacket than to knit the row. 

I then asked myself how hard could it be to purl back. I would have to purl back as opposed to knit back because it was garter stitch. I turned just as I normally would, inserted my needle to start the row, and turned it back again. In this way, I could see what the placement of the left hand needle would look like if I hadn't turned.

To create a purl stitch on the right side coming left to right, the needle is inserted in the back loop of the stitch from behind the stitch...in other words on the right side of the back loop. 

I am not ambidextrous. In fact, there are times when I wonder if my left hand can do anything at all. I realized that rather have the left needle insert it was much easier to move the right needle stitch down onto the left needle. Since the yarn was in my right hand for throwing, I just used the continental method to wrap. 

Once I got the hang of it, I found that I could make each square without ever turning the jacket.

Several months and several projects went by with me knitting the normal way. Work across the row and then turn.

A few weeks ago, I finished a newsletter article and project and rewarded myself again. This time it was with the Sheepscape Afghan kit. This is another project made of squares. The rub here is that it is Intarsia. I have always avoided Intarsia, because I hate the turning and the tangled mess of color in the back. I also like to be able to see what I am doing, thus have the right side facing.

I decided that I wasn't going to turn. Again, I analyzed how the needle went into the stitch and duplicated it using the left needle as the working needle to come back. The squares are basically stockinette stitch. 

I am in shock at how easy it is doing stockinette stitch from right to left and then left to right without turning. 

Insert the left needle into the back of the stitch on the right needle, wrap and remove. Here is the neat thing. The yarn is over the index finger of the right hand. When the left needle is inserted in the back of the stitch, the yarn from the right index finger can be picked up at the same time. There is actually no movement to wrap. It is automatic.

Again, I am throwing from right to left and doing continental from left to right.

After doing just one square, I was coming back across the row as quickly as I would if I had turned and done my regular purl.

The advantage here is that I can always see my color work. By not turning, I am not tangling the yarn hanging off the back at the color change stitches. Above all, it is just so satisfying!

My biggest problem in mastering this technique was getting the stitches to move on the left hand needle when I was coming back across the row. I can't tell you how I finally got it to work, but I did. Now that I have the stitches moving on the needle and don't have to stop to push them down, I will feel comfortable trying this method on a garment.

For those of you, reading this, who are new to knitting, I apologize. I am sure that it is very confusing. It is one of those things that would be best described by demonstration. However, if you are fairly comfortable with knitting, take a few moments to analyze needle position. Cast 20 or so stitches using larger needles an a chunky yarn and give it a try. Knit from right to left and then come back across the row without turning.

I received an email from Maggie Dicey regarding this article. Maggie is a continental knitter, and in a very succinct way describes 'knitting back' using that method.

Maggie's words:

"I hold the yarn in my left hand, working continental-style from right to left, and "flicking" with the left index finger on the return row. Oddly enough, that flick maneuver was something I could never master with my right hand, although I am definitely right-hand dominant. (For color work, I hold both yarns in the left hand.)