I normally just lurk, but had to break out in a happy dance--I finally figured out how to purl!! Okay, I know--big deal, but it is to me. I learned how to knit (literally) long ago in high school, but purling eluded me and all of my great-aunts (the only knitters in the family) had died. I knit Continental and didn't really want to combine English/American (stubborn or stupid? You make the call!). Every knitting store I went into tried to convert me to English/American style knitting because they didn't know how to purl Continental either. After buying and borrowing books over the years trying to learn how and not succeeding, I finally sat down last night and played around a bit and finally figured out a way that worked for me!! Before, I was having to hold onto the yarn with my left needle hand while I tried to coax it through the stitch on the needle. This new way is an odd loopy-doop looking maneuver, but I get a purl stitch, I don't have to do anything complicated to do it, *and* I can keep the same tension as my knit stitch!! I finally knit my first swatch of stockinette and it actually looks like stockinette! So, when I eventually calm down, stop grinning like a catfish and lose the "happy feet", I'm finally going to knit Lily Chin's "Charlotte's Easy Lace Shawl" that I've had for over a year and been mooning over. Next, it's break out the "Folk Vests" cause DH's finally going to get the British Schoolboy Vest!!!
Sorry! Gotta go dance some more!!
Bryn (remove the spamenot and make the invalid a net to reply)