While I'm not tatting and am wondering what to do I pick up the blanket that I started back here.
I like the way it's working out at the moment but it doesn't appear to be making a lot of difference to my stash even when I sit on all those balls of yarn!!!!!
My speed at continental knitting is improving vastly. That's another good reason to carry on although when I do another knitting project which has purl in it it might slow me down!!!
hi love ypur blog and may be able to help with the purling. I retaught myself to continental from throwing a good 18 years ago, A big challenge. But love it. I am also a crocheter so it was not super hard as the yarn is in my left hand for crochet already. But I hold the pointer finger way up rather than close to the work. So I had a lot of trouble with the purl as my dumb finger wanted to do what it wad used to doing for yarn and my hand would cramp and hurt if I forced it to do otherwise,,,so I just relaxed and let it flow and found that my middle finger, loosely holding the needle, liked to jump the needle and help the yarn get down to the needle tip. So after a while I gave up the struggle to keep the pointer finger down close enough to catch the yarn and finish the stitch. It becomes quite quick after a bit. hope you can understand this.
ReplyDeleteThat’s really good advice, Eve. THANK YOU. I’ll study carefully how I do my purl stitches and follow your advice.
ReplyDeleteIt was a real effort to re-train the brain to do continental knitting but I’m SOOO glad I did. Much faster and, as you say, much easier when you can already crochet. I was 13 when I learned to tat and in my 30’s before I started crocheting, I’m ashamed to say!!!!
I was in my teens when I learned to crochet, about 6 when I learned to knit (but didn't like it at the time, too 'slow' so I never knitted), and in my 30s when I leaned to tat. Learned to knit continental, and I can assure you that purling is not difficult, just study pictures and videos for a little while, you should have it moving along as well as your knit stitches easily - in very little time. You sort of fall into a muscle pattern after a while. I'd recommend rows and rows of purling (stockinette stitch, maybe?) to get the muscles up to speed as quickly as possible. You can do it! I know you can!
ReplyDeleteStephanieW
Love the bright colours.
ReplyDeleteLooks great!! :)
ReplyDeleteI learned crochet when I was a child, don't remember when, my mum, aunts and granny used to so it every day and I remember me staring in awe. When I was in my teens, I learned another position to crochet, the "nonna Maria" way, a sort of reversed crochet technique that I haven't seen elsewhere. I tried to explain in a very very short video in Flickr, uploaded in 2012, but unfortunately it doesn't work now, don't know why.
ReplyDeleteThe link for the video: https://flic.kr/p/dsbjth
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you can watch it.
I’ve been watching your video, Ninetta and it looks very interesting. Next time I crochet I’ll try it myself. I was almost an ‘old age pensioner when I learned to crochet. My Aunty was always cross with her sister (my gran) for teaching me to tat when I was 13 as that’s all I ever wanted to do. Thanks for the link to your video too.
ReplyDeleteJane I hope you can sort this out well. I learned to crochet, tat and knit from one of those Learn To little books when I was maybe preteen. Tatting I could not "get" till I found someone to show me that secret "flip"thing. I never took well to kniting as it was soooooo slow and learning from a book you don't always get it right, I was doing the purl stitch wrong and my things did not look quite like the pictures. Finally got that fixed but was even slower. Fiber Guild I was part of had a challenge for everyone to learn continental style one year oh that was maybe about 18 years ago and being an experienced crafter I did it. So glad I did. Now comes the internet and youtube!!! wow, yes I do almost everything now and even learned I think about 4 more ways of knitting, Portugese, Lever,knitting belt, and I forget the name of the other one. Still like the continental but use the Portugese now and then a lot like Ninetta's video for crochet, just a wee flix of the thumb and the purling is the easiest part to do. I switch a lot. Yeah not young anymore either.
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