Continental and Magic Loop revisited

…And Bad Mommy

I’ve tried using the continental knitting style several times with varied amounts of success, it’s not really difficult, just doesn’t always ‘feel’ right… but… I did do half of yesterday’s knitting continental style.  Go me!  AND…. I was youtubing for a better way to pearl using continental and came across CraftSanity’s video.  It made soooo much more sense to me.  Perhaps it’s because I learned to crochet before I knit and she shows the similarities, I’m not sure… but either way – it’s easier for my brain to do it this way.

The ‘pick up’ isn’t as high as I’d been taught before which was undoubtedly part of my problem getting decent tension.

And now…  Leila47 (ravelry link) encouraged me to do a new youtube search for Magic Loop and showed me her method (sans needle and yarn – we were doing resume review you know!).   For some reason, the importance of yarn direction had escaped me so her demonstration combined with the various videos I found LiatMGat’s easy to follow, fun and detailed enough to … tada… I cast on and did a few rounds!   I’m not starting a new project with it just now, I simply wanted to actually figure it out in a way that sinks far enough into my brain/hand relationship that I can use it at will.

You might want to check out Liat’s Blog, I’m loving her Leaf Bug Root Gloves.  She also has Stix Inspiring Yarns for Creative Hands – which is now on my ‘must do’ when I visit my brother in Montana.

In other news – only 27 more days of employment.  More legal stuff.  Need to go see Mom and Dad this weekend, they seem pretty lonely without Heidi.  Still forcing myself to find something to look forward to so I can keep going.  It’s not all bleak, just a bit on the dark/cloudy side still.

And, I took David to get two more guages in his ears this afternoon.  A different dude did the piercing this time and David started bleeding.  I know, I’m the ‘rocker mom,’ the one who signs the piercing forms, does Slipknot concerts, and doesn’t freak when the little darling blogs about his reasons for being an athiest (which includes quasi-sexual content), but I had to stop myself from getting violent, or at least verbal.  It wasn’t the piercers fault, he must have just nicked a small blood vessel or something but the automatic momma bear instinct kicks in when I see blood coming out of one of my kids.  Bad Mommy.

Speed Knitting

Last night – this morning – I knit from 1:30 am to about 5am.  There are tons of projects that need working on, couldn’t sleep anyway so figured I should be productive rather than stare at the ceiling which is mind numbingly plain.   As my mind was raced over possible solutions to a family situation, my fingers started slowing down or speeding up according to the complexity of the thoughts rambling around.  Then it struck me – I should see what my speed is on a consistent basis.  Note to self – do this again a few times after having a reasonable amount of sleep.

This is what I came up with (for late night/early morning brain and emotions are numb knitting) – on size 2 dpns mens sz large sock the average is 4 rows in 4.5 minutes.  On size 3 dpns mens sz large sock it was more like 5 rows in 4.3 minutes.  On size 6 circulars with heaven knows how many stitches – was increasing like crazy for a ruffle – it’s roughly 3 rows in 8.5 minutes.

How do I compare to other knitters?  No clue!  However, I want to speed things up a bit.  Quite a bit.  So…. I’m working on learning Continental knitting.  It looks pretty easy but requires a different hand set of hand movements.

When I lived in the UK I sort of learned Continental but didn’t practice enough to make it stick.  I want to be able to stick a needle under one arm and knit quickly to the end of the rows though like my flatmates mum did.

As I was browsing through K2Tog I came upon Miriam Tegels tips on speed knitting.  Miriam holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of Fastest Knitter at 118 stitches per minute.  Astonishing speed!!!  I strongly recommend watching her video and reading the posting/comments on KnitPicks in Angela’s blog as well as listening to Kelley’s Podcast.  Lots of fun and informative conversation there.

Another fun speed knitting vid:

Speed Knitting (with Stained Secret Track)

I have a lot of progress to make but have discovered a few things that help:

1) Don’t try to speed knit when doing complicated lace (or even easy lace) patterns.  Should be obvious but this morning, it wasn’t;

2) When knitting quickly feel for any possible dropped stitches, if going fast it’s easy to drop until I ‘catch up with myself’

3) Stay as relaxed as possible – do NOT tense shoulders.

4) Practice reasonably decent ergonomics.

5) Take breaks.

6) Admire progress from time to time.

Perhaps simplistic but, they’re helping!