Knitting v. Purling in the round

[settingshadow]

I think I'm going crazy: every time I try to knit in the round, the purl side ends up facing out. I end up having to purl in the round. I've been knitting for years, and I've just done it this way for years (I like purling, so it doesn't really bother me), but now I'm working from a pattern with a lot of slanting increases and decreases and having to convert all of them to purling is annoying.

To make it more difficult, the pattern I'm working with has a fixed bottom, so I can't just knit it inside out (it's a stuffed animal made of two tubes, so the bottom is made of stitches picked up from the head of the animal), but the pattern says to knit, so clearly I'm doing something wrong.

Help?

[RochesterKnitter]

It sounds like you purl because you knit backwards, i.e. on the inside of the piece and not the outside.
If you knit in the round correctly/normally, then the right side faces out and knitting a stitch should appear as a knit when you come back around to it.

Making your backwards piece, right side out, just involves reaching down into the "center" or your circular needles and pulling the work up and out th etop of the circle. Then turn it over (needle on top and work again dangling) to keep knitting on the outside/right side of the work.

[salmonmac]

Knitting the way you have for years works for lots of projects and then you come up against something like this one where it won't really do.
When you knit in the round the best way is to knit along the outside of the tube rather than the inside just because of this kind of problem with shaping. You should hold the knitting so that the working needles are near your body and the cable forms a circle away from you. That way, you'll be knitting on the outside of the tube and the knit sts will look like knit sts. It will make this project easier.

[suzeeq]

You may be holding the circle wrong. The needles should be closer to you with the knit sts on the outside, as shown in this picture. If you hold them with the needles on the far side, the knits will be on the inside. Most of the time you can just flip the knitting through the circle and adust your needles and position, but that won't do for this.

[settingshadow]

@RochesterKnitter -- thanks for your help! That's what I've done before on hats and things that need cabling. Unfortunately, I can't on this project because the base of the circle is a large, stuffed piece that won't fit through the round

@salmon mac & Suzee -- thank you!!!! That makes so much sense. I do hold the circle closer to me than the needles. I have been vaguely wondering for years how everyone else manages to actually knit in the round. It's a little embarrassing that the answer is this easy

Thank you all for your advice!!!!

[Danisty]

salmonmac, I thanked you, but for a different reason. This seems like a good way to knit things in the round that are mostly purl stitches on the right side. I hate purling in the round, so I bet for some patterns, this will make large sections of reverse stockinette in the round so easy!

[suzeeq]

Yes, a lot of people will do rev st st in the round by knitting inside out, then flipping the work.

[salmonmac]

Yes I agree, if it works for your pattern, why not work on the inside of the tube? I don't have a purl phobia but sometimes I do it too just to change the position of the needles. Just make sure you can follow the shaping etc. if necessary, on the inside of the tube.

[Danisty]

Oh, I don't have a purl phobia. It just sometimes makes my hand cramp faster.