Continental Purls

[joulesb]

im a crocheter who has been learning to knit from the videos on this site. im trying to learn continental style because i can hold the yarn the way i usually do.

doing the knit stitches was fine adn everything was ok until i looked at purls. this seems common as i see lots of people asking for help with this.

as a crocheter first i find hooks more comfortable, and after a while i thoght that managing the workin yarn in the purl stitch (where you have to push it down) would eb easier with a crochet hook. so i grabbed one of my hooks and tried it. inserting the hook from right to left purlwise, in frong fo the working yarn. then i rotated it to the right and in front of the working yarn which wrapps the yarn anticlockwise around the hook in the same way as the video. all this time my hook is facing away form me so at this point the working yarn sits in the throat of the hook. i then just pull the hook through which grabs the working yarn with out any extra effort on my part.

im now finding purls so easy that i keep doing them instead of knits in my stockinette practise piece.

to me its just natural movements, probably because i could crochet first and i cant imagine doing it any other way now. i fond when i need to passa slipped stitch over as in decreases or a knit stitch in bind off that having a hook makes it easy as before with needles i kept dropping a stitch.

pickup and knit is made easy for me too as with needles i was using a crochet hook anyways and then slipping the stitch onto the needle after i picked it up.

now im looking to buy sets of tunisian crochet hooks to use instead of knitting needles. knitting with these no longer hurts my hands and the motion is fluid and just flows easily.

the only problem i have is i wanted to try kntting socks but that would need double pointed crochet hooks or circular ones. you can get both but not in a small enough size for sock yarn - the smallestdoublepointed hook i found was 4mm and the smallest cable was 3.5mm

is there naything ive overlooked before i give up on needles?

thanks

[suzeeq]

When you grab the yarn in crochet, it's around the hook a different direction than in knitting, so that's why you find using the hook easier. You can look at combination knitting which makes the purls similar to how you describe doing it with a hook and that may help you.

[MerigoldinWA]

The most natural way to pull the new stitch loop up with the hook when you purl does seat the stitch on the needle the Eastern way. In other words in Western knitting when you look at the way a stitch loop sits on the needle (hook) the leg behind the needle should be a little behind the leg in front. If you thought about it like a rider sitting on a horse the leg on the left of the horse (with the needle tip being the horse's head) should be a little further away from the horse's head than the leg on the right. If this is the way the stitches sit you knit to the left of the first stitch on the needle and in front.

If the stitches sit the other way with the back leg leading (they are Eastern style)then you need to knit behind the needle, inserting the needle right to left like a purl stitch. If you don't make that accommodation the stitches will twist. In some parts of the world I believe they like to twist all their stitches, but we don't usually see knitting done that way. It still works but makes a stiffer fabric.

So if you are getting the Eastern seat of the stitch you need to look into Combination Knitting as Sue said. It works fine, but there are a few things you need to learn that are a bit different.

I tried knitting with the crochet hook as you said. It works fine for the knit stitch too. I never thought of knitting with a crochet hook. If it works for you, go for it. If you have hooks on the end of all your needles it would make them hard to knit off of with the hook at the end, but maybe you have an idea to solve that problem. Double pointed needles would be harder to come by (but there may be a solution especially if you or someone you know can make you hooks), also circular needles are really nice for a lot of stitches, but if you don't want to knit real big things or knit in the round it should work.

[joulesb]

i dont believe im twisting the stitches as im doing things the same as the videos on here for continental purling.

as for sliding the stitches off the left needle its ok as long as the hook on that needle is facing downwards. ok sometimes it gets accidentally twisted but rarely. if i was doing a long section of stockinette then i may consider using one hook and one needle but for rib using two hooks would be necesary.

i tried with needles again and it felt so awkward to do that i picked the hooks up again. i reckon i will keep using them as for me its a lot easier

[MerigoldinWA]

If you are twisting the stockinette stitches, where they are supposed to be little vees, they will have an X at the bottom of each vee, where one leg crosses over the other.

If you are not twisting the stitches everything should be fine, and if you are, just learn Combined knitting to deal with that issue. I would really like to see a video of how you do your stitches, especially the purl. I managed but it was awkward for me. It sounds like you have a good system going.

[MerigoldinWA]

I just found today a lady saying she was knitting this way, with crochet hooks. Like you she was planning to get the long Tunisian hooks. I understood the way she was doing the purl better. It is probably what you are doing. Her name on Ravelry is Ellensmum and this is a short quote from her, "insert the hook as normal right to left and behind the working yarn, rotate the hook to the right and in front of the yarn so its wrapped correctly, then simply pull the crochet hook through to complete the stitch whilst grabbing the working yarn. do this with the hook pointed away from you." Following those directions I was able to purl with a crochet hook without twisting the stitches. Pretty cool. Maybe it was you.

[joulesb]

lol it was me. i was hoping to find a way to purl without crochet hooks as it does have some size limitations.

i did discover a different video to the norwegian purl which seems to be working. i think i will practice a while with it and see how i get on.

for all using the hooks was working i still wanted to use needles too, that doesnt make any sense lol.

its cos i want to do socks as well as buy lots of those knitpro needles.

[suzeeq]

Check Youtube for portuguese knitting videos, I think sometimes it uses a needle with a hook on it.

[MerigoldinWA]

It was me.

I thought it was amazing to find 2 people in one day doing this, when I had never heard of it before.

Here is a link to some videos by Rox from Ravelry. She talks about different ways to purl and she has a way I had not seen that was a Continental purl. It looks quite easy and you may like it. LINK

Scroll down on the right and look at the choices she has several about purling, I'd recommend all of them for a good picture.

Sue mentioned Portuguese knitting. The way they purl is super easy, but the knit is slightly harder than normal. For rows of purling a person could switch to Portuguese and then back to "regular" for knit rows, that wouldn't help much if you wanted to k1, p1 a lot though. But it is definitely worth checking into. I haven't seen Portuguese using hooks, but maybe they do that too.

[hyperactive]

it's all good. Just practice.
Purls are really not so hard. And there are SO many ways to make them. A hook is not needed at all.
What kind of knitting needles are you working with? very slippery ones? or slippery yarn? Change to some practice setup with a lot of grip. That will be all you need to get confident.

But creative to work it out with a hook. (I am quickly grabbing crochet hooks when I think I need them. For picking up stitches in tight sections, for repairing mistakes, for weird stuff sometimes...) But not for purls.