Hand Motions
The motion of the right wrist is used to slip the right needle into the loop of the stitch being knitted and 'scoop' or 'hook' the yarn onto the right needle while the left forefinger holds the yarn across the back of the stitch. An alternative method of collecting the yarn involves using the thumb or index finger of the right hand to hold the yarn in place as the new stitch is being pulled out of the loop.
This knitting style is often easier to learn for people with crocheting experience, since the way the yarn is held in the left hand is similar to crochet, and the motion of the right hand is similar to the motion seen in crochet, although the knitting needle is held under the palm of the hand. One major difference in the motion of the right wrist is that in crochet the crochet hook may be held more like a pencil; this method of holding the knitting needle like a pencil was briefly made popular around 1900 under the guise of being more ladylike. Nowadays, however, the majority of knitters hold both needles under the palm.
Read more about this topic: Continental Knitting
Famous quotes containing the words hand and/or motions:
“Oh demon within,
I am afraid and seldom put my hand up
to my mouth and stitch it up
covering you, smothering you
from the public voyeury eyes
of my typewriter keys.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“We all run on two clocks. One is the outside clock, which ticks away our decades and brings us ceaselessly to the dry season. The other is the inside clock, where you are your own timekeeper and determine your own chronology, your own internal weather and your own rate of living. Sometimes the inner clock runs itself out long before the outer one, and you see a dead man going through the motions of living.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)