Our fingers and wrists get a lot of strain when we knit. A simple tweak described in this tutorial gives them a break, especially if arthritis or stiffness has made knitting and purling harder than it should be.
I learnt this trick from Robyne – a skilled (and amazingly creative!) knitter in our knitting community.
She was looking for a way to make Continental purling easier and faster. As she put it in her email to me, “I find it so difficult to do the purl stitch as I have arthritic fingers – but I refuse to let them stop me.” What determination!
In her attempt to simplify purling, Robyne discovered a more comfortable alternative to the way we normally hold yarn. This new method makes it easier to bring the yarn to the front of the work before purling a stitch.
This simple way of holding yarn also minimizes the need to flex fingers and helps control yarn tension without wrapping the yarn around fingers. That makes this method very gentle on our hands.
All of these advantages will benefit any knitter but are especially helpful to knitters whose fingers get tired fast or get stiff because of arthritis or other issues.
With many thanks to Robyne and her creativity, let’s take a look at an alternative way to hold yarn in Continental knitting.
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STEP 1
Hold the needle with the stitches in your left hand as you normally do when you are about to start a new row.
STEP 2
If the first stitch of the row is a knit, bring the yarn between the tip of the left needle and your left index finger and over the back of your left hand.
If the first stitch of the row is a purl, bring the yarn to the front of the work and over the back of your left hand.
STEP 3
Place the yarn between your left ring and little fingers. Then move the yarn over the back of your left hand to the right-hand side of your left wrist and drop it at the inside of your left wrist.
This way of holding yarn gives us more flexibility in manipulating the working yarn.
Because we don’t hold the yarn with the left middle, ring and little fingers (as we do when we usually hold yarn in Continental knitting), we can use those fingers to help the index finger bring the yarn to the front of the work for purling, and to the back of the work for knitting.
Not only that – because there is no need to clench the yarn while working on the project, the fingers stay relaxed all the time, allowing us to knit longer without getting tired.
Also, when we move the yarn across the back of the hand and halfway around the wrist, we redistribute the yarn tension between the left hand, the little finger and the wrist, much like the yarn tension is redistributed in knitting machines.
This setup is not only amazingly efficient. It also creates a better yarn tension. And if you feel that the yarn is too loose, wrap it around the left wrist one more time.
This way, you will easily adjust the tension without putting any additional pressure on your fingers.
Another great thing I noticed while testing this way of holding yarn is that we can turn the work and work on the next row without dropping the working yarn and picking it up again.
It saves us from rearranging the yarn after every row, and it gives us a few additional seconds every row, helping us to finish the project sooner.
One more suggestion from Robyne – if you are having trouble bending your left index finger to hold the yarn down while you purl a stitch, pinch the yarn with your left thumb and index finger as you purl.
Because our left fingers are not restrained by holding the yarn, we can easily use them to help us work each stitch in the most comfortable way possible.
Even though this gentle way to hold yarn was designed for Continental knitting, you can apply the same strategy if you hold yarn in your right hand.
It will bring some relief to your right fingers, but if it is not enough, consider switching to Continental knitting, as it is commonly known to be gentler on our hands and wrists.
For an even easier way to knit and purl, try the Eastern knitting style. It allows us to knit and purl with minimal strain on our hands and wrists.
Whether you choose to change your knitting style or not, please know that there are ways we can help our fingers knit without pain and stiffness.
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This and 41 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #4.
