The project is to learn to knit on too long, too thin DPN - with the lower point of the right kneedle secured in a "knitting stick" which holds the right needls stabile, and most of the stitch formation performed with the left needle. The yarn is controlled with the right hand.
Why ? Becaue they claim that this was the technique used in the "old days" to knit ganzeys.
Last night, I carved a knitting stick to control the lower end of the right needle, and sat down knit a fine yarn on US#1 needles. There is a learning curve. There was a tendency to knit very tightly. It was very easy to drop stitches, and since I was knitting so tightly, all the stitches below the dropped stitch would instantly pop loose right down to the cast-on with no chance of recovery.
So, I tried a heavier, softer yarn on US#3 needles. Again, I was knitting much tighter than the swatch of the same yarn that I had previously knitted on #3 circular needles, and dropped stitches would ladder back disconcertingly fast.
On the other hand, after a few minutes, I was knittng surprisingly fast. I think that I can learn to knit like this and there will be advantages for things like ganzeys.
One real downside to this method of knitting is that the outer end of the left needle does flail, and with a long metal needle, it does damage. I am sure the saving furniture is one reason that this method of knitting was abandoned, and even worse, as I look at the damage to my knitting chair, I realize that flailing needle tip is right at eye level for a small child.
This is very interesting but I'm having trouble picturing the knitting stick and how it is secured to the needle. Could you give some more details, please. Thanks.
with more detail inother photos on the site and associated text. Note that this technique can also be used for shorter DPN such as you mightalready have to knit socks. Aaron
You just want to see a photo of the "cable and step" socks that I am currently knitting as worn by a "wee kilty lad"! Me too! I will be so glad when they are finished! : )
I have not set up a blog for several reasons. One is that my computer is not really set up for graphics - I bought it when I was doing database work - but really, what good is a tool if you can not modify it to meet your current needs? Therefore, I will put my nose to the grindstone, reconfigure my computer, and start a blog. So be it.
YAY, Aaron! Will you go with a publicly branded host, such as blogspot, etc, or will you host your own? I'm looking SO foreward to it! forward? foreward? lol, forewarned is forearmed? Noreen ... silly... WHO? ME???
I had the impression (from reading a history of knitting, oh, 20 years ago) that the arrangement for knitting these ganseys on those long steel needles involved the non-working ends of both needles being secured in leather sheathes at the hips. Perhaps I should look up the reference.
Hats off to you for trying to do this--I can't imagine doing it myself. My knitting procedure involves controlling the yarn with my left hand, and doing all the "poking" with my right hand. I think I would be weeks getting up to speed.
What shape is your knitting stick? I tried one with a fairly loose hold (it's really an old bobbin from a commercial knitting factory) and I can't make the needle stay in. I admit I didn't try very long.
This is something I hadn't seen mentioned elsewhere. Clara Sedgwick was observed to knit with the working end downward; maybe that was to keep the other ends aimed upward for safety. Also, many people knitted standing up, walking around, sitting on stools, etc. The descriptions I've read mention tiny movements. Maybe if you move your left forearm as a whole with the needle, instead of moving the needle with your fingers, that might make it flail less.
Another good reference on other knitting methods is Mary Thomas's Knitting Book, which is back in print as a paperback and full of fun facts. However, I understand that not all the fun facts in MTKB are historically accurate.
In the Yorkshire method, it was the lower end of the right needle that was secured in the knitting stick. I expect that other areas had other methods. For example, I understand that farther north, it was more common to knit on
8 or 10 shorter needles, while farther south only 5 longer needles were used. I am not sure which system was used in Yorkshire -- perhaps both? I suspect that it had to do with the weight of the yarn being used. Heavier garments were likely knit on more needles, lighter yarns could be managed on fewer needles.
Then there are the knitting sticks from the continent. They are longer - was that to allow for different lengths of needles? Or, for some other reason? For example securing the left needle? (so that the left hand could control the yarn in the continental style.)
As I look at the knitting sticks, It looks to me like some of them are commercially made and have turned, interchangeable needle holders. Thus, there would be a small needle holder for each size needle which would fit securely into the larger knitting stick which was tucked into the knitter's apron strings.
I am experimenting with several different shaped knitting sticks. Shapes such as ones pictured on the Yorkshire site are more suitable for inserting into apron strings, while others work best attached to a firm leather belt. Unfortuantly, I gave my wood lathe away a few years ago, so not all styles will be tried.
My approach to holding needles firmly is to either drill a tapered holes and then push the needle in until it fits firmly or to drill holes the exact sixe of the needle that I intend to use with that knitting stick. It is pruning season, and I can cut apiece of green wood and whittle a prototype in a matter of minutes, let it dry a few days, and try it out. There are several drying under my workbench right now and I will let you know which one work.
I have seen people knitting with the right needle clamped firmly under their arm: no knitting stick. I'm pretty sure that's the way the older women knit here in Italy, but I'm not 100% sure that it's here I saw it.
When we were in Zambia, visiting my daugher who was working for CARE International, it was very common to see people, even very young girls, walking along the highway knitting. People walked very long distances there, and the edges of the highways were as crowded with pedestrians as the sidewalks of New York.
That's the way I was taught to do it, growing up in the north of England. In fact, I still use that method with straight needles. With circs I find the Continental method easiest.
It's interesting that you should mention this, Barbara. While I was looking at yarns at the shop in Siena (which I wrote about in a previous post), the shopkeeper was helping 2 other woman. While talking with them, she knitted a swatch from a yarn they seemed to be considering. It appeared to me that she was holding the right needle exactly as you described. I wish now I had watched her more closely but I didn't want to stare. Also, I noticed that she "threw" the yarn with her right hand by holding it between her thumb and index finger. It seemed much slower than the way I do it which is to carry the yarn over the end of my index finger.
OK! So why are all of these older methods of knittng falling by the wayside?
Sure technology advanced allowing high quality circular needles, and long DPN are a safety hazard, but are there issues related to knitting quality or kitting speed? Is it a matter that we have gotten lazy and just buy the needles offered by the big needle companies, or are these the best knitting tools that history has to offer?
I think that today we have fewer "Knitting Guild" quality knitters, so there is less demand for the high-end tools used to produce guild quality knitting. Most of the knitting tools that I see on the market are inexpensive tools for hobbists. Well, some of them are not so inexpensive, but are they really the best tools for really high quality knitting?
Do we knit the way we knit because it is easy to teach and learn, or because it produces the best results? Moreover, high technical skills requires constant practice. Someone that knits only a few hours a month can not be as profienct as someone who knits a few hours a day. If I do not knit for a while, then I have to do some easy socks and hats to regain the muscles and skills. Thus, I will never be as good as you guys that practice and train on a regular schedule
Using the thumb and forfinger to through the yarn is slower, but you can get a really tight tension if you want to knit a windproof garment or want those stitches to stand out boldly.
Here in the US I wasn't taught to knit that way, but I often anchor the right needle somewhere (chair cushion, legs, pocket, etc) and throw the yarn with my right index finger & thumb while manipulating the left needle to make the stitches. It's very fast for ribbing as well as plain knitting or purling. A leather "holster" of some kind has occurred to me as a way to knit while standing or walking.
I've since taught myself continental knitting (with which I still have diffuculty purling!) and like it for plain knitting.
I'll go check out the knitting sticks before babbling further....
Well, actually, they aren't. A few years ago, in _Knitting Around the World_, several different ways of holding the needles were illustrated, including the "needle under arm" method. I'm told that in Portugal the old way of knitting with hooked needles is coming back into favor. It's just that the glossy magazines usually only show the standard western methods.
In some ways, we have some of the finest knitting tools ever made. Light- weight aluminum needles are a joy to use; try some solid steel needles made from flawed castings in WWII if you don't think so. I found some at a flea market and they weigh a ton! Yes, they are smooth - but my hands were tired in minutes. At sock needles size it makes less difference, but it still matters. (I haven't found any size 0000 aluminum needles to compare with my steel ones.) Not only are they light, they are smoothly finished and have nicely rounded points that taper a bit, which makes it much easier to get the tip of the needle into a tight gauge stitch. Add to that the choices of bright colors that let me pick a needle that will show up by contrasting with the yarn color, and it becomes fairly easy even to knit with black yarn.
I have a collection of ordinary steel dpns in sizes ranging from US size 3 to US size 00000. Probably most of them were made in the early
20th century; there's no way to tell. Most of them have some kind of taper to the ends, but all the fine ones are sharp enough to poke my fingers painfully. A few sets have no tapering at all, just a sharp point where they were cut to length.
It is true that for a while it was next to impossible to get the really long dpns to knit ganseys, and I've read that it has been very hard to buy size 000 dpns in Europe, and both of those happened because there was little demand for those tools. Circular needles almost eliminated the last customer base for the old long straight dpns. Trade is a factor, too: when you can buy a plain blue stockinette sweater easily and cheaply, why bother to knit one?
The medieval knitting guild members had tools that were no better than the tools available in the 19th and early 20th century. The difference was that they could get paid enough for their skill and time to make a living at hand knitting. The modern western knitter, who really doesn't have to knit just to get knitted items to wear, is less motivated to work very fine materials and is often under some pressure to produce the desired fabric as quickly as possible, so that their regular work can be done.
I wouldn't blame the tools for the quality of the knitting. The Andean knitters in South America routinely make their own knitting needles out of bicycle spokes. They produce very fine work. Motivation is all.
There's a hidden assumption in there, that "we" all knit the same way. Many of the readers of this newsgroup have posted about how they knit in ways that are different from the "standard" methods described in most "how to knit" books. All of the methods produce a knitted fabric. Some methods are more efficient for more people, but for every method, there is someone for whom that method works best.
The "standard" methods are easy to teach and learn, but I think they might not be the most efficient for the most people. What is easiest to describe is not necessarily the best way to do anything.
Continual, or at least frequent, yes. (Look up "constant" and "continual" - you may be surprised.)
Ha! I can see us now - "Hup! Two! Knit! Purl! All together now! Get those needles moving!"
But really, a few hours a day spent knitting with an inefficient method, followed by ripping out, will not necessarily produce as good a result as a few hours a month spent knitting efficiently with a method that makes the best use of motions and doesn't strain the hands and wrists.
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