Major knitting update. After about 6 months of knitting I have discovered that I am mainly a combination knitter. What this means is that I knit in the back loop instead of the front and purl counter-clockwise instead of clockwise. For anyone that also knits this way, this is not a “wrong” or “backwards” way of knitting, it is perfectly acceptable as this does not twist your stitches.

However, there is a problem with combination knitting in the round. When you are knitting in the round, because you are not turning the work it is not “untwisting” your stitches. Most will tell you that it is far easier to just learn continental than to try and figure out how to untwist your stitches in the round but I have a tip for anyone who knows how to do the knit stitch in both combination (back loop) and continental (front loop).

When knitting in the round, if you are doing stockinette stitch, use the continental (front loop) knit method. If you are switching from stockinette to garter, knit the row before the the switch over in combination (back loop) knit method. If youare switching from garter to knit, knit the row after the switch over in combination (back loop) then knit all other knit rows in continental (front loop) method.

Pictures of this coming soon!