Re-training my knitting brain

I’m currently plodding on with my grey CDA Petite Choses Cardigan.  This is being knit in grey rowan alpaca cotton which is a nice fluffy yarn but it’s a pig to pull out as it catches.  I should try to make fewer mistakes I guess. 

This is a free pattern and can be found here, it is in French but there in a link to an English translation.

I have mentioned before that I consider myself to be a beginner when it comes to knitting, I guess I could say I was now an intermediate knitter considering the range of things I have taught myself to do but… I always feel like a bit of a fraud.  You see knitting on long straight needles is a breeze for me, but using circular needles and double pointed needles has proven difficult as I am a ‘tuck your right hand needle under the armpit’ knitter.  This is how my Mam knitted and my Nanna before her and how I was taught as a kid.  It transpires it may be a bit of a northern thing or at least I have read that certain regions of the country tend to have pockets of us armpit lot.  This is a fine way of knitting and I am fast knitting this way, but you can’t tuck a floppy circular needle under your armpit, and tiny DPN’s tucked under there make me look like a demented T Rex (yes I tried). 

I decided that I would have to re-learn how to knit and how to hold my needles and yarn and I am quite proud to announce that I have nailed it.  It took about a week of persevering but I have cracked it.  There are lots of various methods of how to hold needles but I looked at them all and found a way that feels natural to me and this is it.

 Holding the needles like a pen and flicking the yarn over with the index finger of my right hand.

Flicking the yarn over

 This is how I hold my yarn for tension

This cardigan was knit quite quickly on long needles up to the point where all parts had to be added to a big circular needle. It’s a bit slow going from there as I am using this cardigan as my practice to learn a new method of knitting.

I have been interchanging between the two methods of knitting and I find I am able to do both now without much trouble, there is a 3-5 second delay every time I pick up my circular needles as my brain puts my hand into the best position and the first couple of stitches are a bit pathetic but I soon get into it.  Fingers crossed I will have a completed cardigan to share with you soon.

I have already got my next project lined up and am itching to get started with it, on circular needles of course.

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