Up until fifteen years ago, I had no idea there were different ways to knit and purl. I used the knitting style that my aunt showed me when I was a little girl, and I was sure that all knitters in the world used the same method.
Then I discovered that there are other ways to form stitches, and the knitting I knew (Eastern knitting) is not even one of the two classic knitting styles (English and Continental).
A bit later I was introduced to a very interesting method that is known as Portuguese knitting, and quite recently a fellow knitter kindly shared with me a variation of Eastern knitting that she uses to make her projects.
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This knitting style is called Eastern Uncrossed, and it really lives up to its name. The stitches are sitting on the needles as they sit when we use Eastern knitting, but the way we knit and purl those stitches doesn’t twist them when we work in the round or make garter stitch. The stitches stay uncrossed in all stitch patterns.
Here’s how Eastern Uncrossed knitting and purling works step by step.
SETUP
Long-tail cast on is the most common way to cast on stitches in Eastern knitting, so it is the method I used to cast on eight stitches for my test swatch.
The important thing about long-tail cast on is that the stitches it forms are not mounted on the needle in any distinct way. It makes this cast-on method perfect for all knitting styles, including Eastern Uncrossed knitting.
Once you cast on stitches, take the needle with the stitches in your left hand. Then place the working yarn on your left index finger and under your left middle, ring, and little fingers. Hold the needle and the yarn securely in your left hand.
If you feel that the yarn is too loose, wrap it around your left index finger.
Take an empty needle in your right hand, and you are ready to knit and purl using the Eastern Uncrossed knitting style.
In Eastern knitting, we usually slip the first stitch and purl the last stitch of every row. We’ll ignore this tradition for now and focus solely on knitting and purling.
EASTERN UNCROSSED KNIT STITCH
STEP 1
With the working yarn at the back of the work, insert the right needle into the first stitch on the left needle from right to left.
STEP 2
Wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn from back to front.
This way of wrapping the right needle is different from the one we use in Eastern (Russian) knitting. If you ever used that knitting style, be alert and remember to wrap the tip of the right needle from back to front and not from front to back.
STEP 3
Pull the yarn wrap through the stitch.
And slip the worked stitch off the left needle.
As you see, the new stitch sits on the right needle the Eastern way, with the right leg of the stitch at the back of the needle. That’s how it is supposed to be when we knit stitches in Eastern Uncrossed knitting.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 to knit all stitches to the end of the row.
Make sure all stitches sit on the right needle the same way, with their right legs at the back of the needle.
EASTERN UNCROSSED PURL STITCH
Now let’s see how purling works in the Eastern Uncrossed knitting style. We start by bringing the yarn to the front of the work.
STEP 1
As you probably noticed, the working yarn is attached to the back leg of the first stitch on the left needle.
If we insert the right needle into that stitch from right to left, as we normally do when we purl, we’ll twist this stitch.
To avoid it, we should insert the needle from left to right under the back leg of the stitch, as we do when we purl a stitch through the back loop.
It is a bit inconvenient, but necessary to keep the stitches “uncrossed”.
STEP 2
To compensate for the inconvenience we experienced in the previous step, wrapping the yarn around the tip of the right needle is very easy. We simply place the yarn between two legs of the same stitch.
STEP 3
In this step, we use the tip of the right needle to push the yarn through the stitch from front to back.
Then we slip the worked stitch off the left needle.
Repeat these steps to purl more stitches.
TIPS
If you find it difficult to keep the yarn in place as you push it to the back of the stitch, place your left thumb on the left leg of the stitch.
The thumb will stop the yarn from shifting.
Another way to make sure the yarn stays put is to keep it at the back of the left needle.
This approach is unusual but efficient. The yarn is secured between the tips of the needles, and you don’t need to move the yarn to the front of the work whether you knit or purl a stitch.
As you work in stockinette stitch for a few rows, you will see that the stitches are perfectly open, and they stay that way whether you work back and forth or in the round using any stitch pattern, including garter stitch.
Even though the Eastern Uncrossed knitting style is not as ergonomically efficient as Eastern (Russian) knitting, it is gentler to our wrists than the classic knitting styles.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
Given that Eastern Uncrossed knitting solves the biggest drawback of Eastern (Russian) knitting – twisted stitches in garter stitch and in seamless projects – it is a great option to try if you are looking to make your knitting less stressful to your hands.
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This and 26 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #9.