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As you become a more experienced knitter, you will undoubtedly develop your own style. Maybe you use more or less tension than average, or maybe you don't wrap your yarn around your fingers in the traditional way. There are hundreds of ways to hold your yarn. The exact way you knit is specific to you, like a fingerprint.
Although it is easy to become set in our ways, it is fun to switch things up sometimes and learn a new knitting style. Whether you want to increase your speed or learn to hold your yarn in a new way, there are many styles to try.
The English style of knitting is also called "throwing." With this style, the yarn is held in the right hand and wrapped around the needle. It is acceptable to vary both the movement and also how you hold the yarn.
More than 70 percent of the world is right handed. Even so, that doesn't mean that lefties have to knit right handed. If you are left handed, let you dominant hand take the lead. And if you are right handed, reverse your usual knitting style for a bit of a challenge.
Have you even seen knitters with the yarn thrown around their necks? They were likely practicing the Portuguese style of knitting. Wrapping the yarn around your neck provides the needed tension to create stitches by flicking the working yarn with your thumb. This style tends to be faster because you have the use of both hands.
Lever knitting is also known as "flicking." The knitter holds the yarn in the dominant hand and loops the yarn around the needle without removing the dominant hand from the needle. The result is a levering type motion. Once you get the hang of it, the pointer finger holds the yarn tension and "flicks" it around the needle and knitting becomes lightning fast.
If you enjoy Continental knitting, but want to pick up your speed, give combination knitting a try. Purl stitches are wrapped the opposite way, meaning that knit stitches are worked through the back loop.
Learning additional knitting styles allows you to experiment with different type of stitch. It can also relieve pain or repetitive movement aches to switch up your style occasionally.
What knitting style is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
