The Differences Between English & Continental Knitting

In continental knitting, the yarn is carried on the left hand.

Knitters follow one of two techniques to produce a knitted stitch: the English method or the continental. The English is the most prevalent method among U.S. knitters and those in Great Britain and other English-speaking countries. In Germany and some of its European neighbors, the continental technique is more popular. Basically, in English knitting the yarn is carried on the knitter's right hand, and in continental knitting it's on her left, according to TechKnitting.

English Knitting Configuration

In English knitting, your hold the needle with completed stitches on it in your left hand and the other needle and yarn in your right, inserting the needle to receive the new stitch into the front of the next stitch on the left-hand needle. Keep the yarn coming from the ball behind the needles. Then, wrap the yarn around the right-hand needle in a counterclockwise direction and pull it through the stitch on the left needle. Slip the stitch off the left needle onto the right. As you become more practiced, the process will become one smooth motion instead of three separate movements, assures "The Knitting Answer Book."

Continental Knitting Configuration

In continental knitting, you wrap the yarn coming from the ball twice around your left index finger, according to "Knitting School." The needle with the completed stitches is also held in your left hand, while the receiving needle rests in your right hand. Insert the right-hand needle into the next completed stitch. Then, rather than throwing the yarn over the needle, catch a loop of the yarn on your left index finger and pull it through with the needle tip.

The Resulting Work

The knit, or corresponding purl, stitches resulting from either technique are the same, and the same knitting patterns can be used whether you are an English or a continental knitter. Although it might appear that continental knitting would go faster because the "throwing" step is omitted and the work is held closer to your body, TechKnitting claims that speed records are about equal for both types of knitters.

Handedness

Which hand is your dominant one does not have much to do with whether English or continental knitting will seem more natural to you. Since knitting involves two hands, the right-handed may have as much difficulty learning to maneuver their left hands as lefties have controlling their right. Some knitting instructors teach the left-handed to do everything backwards, using a mirror to guide their movements, but the teachers at TechKnitting advise new left-handed knitters to first try both English and continental methods, done in the conventional manner, to see if they can master either of them. Otherwise, any knitting done in the mirror-image fashion will require all pattern instructions to be transposed.

References

• "The Knitting Answer Book"; Margaret Radcliffe; 2005
• TechKnitting; Continental Knitting, English Knitting and Handedness; December 2006
• "Knitting School"; Fabbri Editori; 2003