German Knitting

[illywacker1]

Yes, this is how they knit in Germany.

[drumpointer]

Twisted stitches or stitches the wrong way round on the needle.

Firstly, who is to say which is "correct" or "twisted".

What I will say is the way this knitter is forming the stitches, i.e. direction of the wrapping round the needle, is absolutely the most conventional way of knitting today. One can knit any conventional pattern in this manner. To the German commenter, in German knitting there are 2 ways of purling. The so called correct way (over the needle) and under the needle.

[LulieRose]

Portuguese is a much faster way to knit than English, Continental/German picking.

[ninja5411]

very clear Thank you for sharing !

[SuperBuncy]

I think its very nicely explained I dont care if its called German knitting or continental either way thankyou for sharing!

[emilemon09]

I'm from the U.S. but I wondered why the way I knitted (this way) was so different than everyone else. Then I remembered my day care teacher who taught it to me was German! :) Its so much more efficient and much faster than the way people typically knit here.

[dancinggiraffe]

@jettevi This is what I know as the continental method. I don't know whether it's the same as the German method. But I can vouch for its *not* resulting in twisted stiches. What I'd like to see is a video of someone doing this method but seen from the back. I don't feel that I have control of the tension when I hold the yarn in my left hand, and I'd like to see how people manage to hold onto the left needle and still be able to keep the yarn from feeding through the fingers too quickly.

[debsie]

Hi Sue, look at videos from theknitwitch. She does a great cast on video and is very clear. D

[jettevi]

I am so so glad that some other people agree that this is NOT German knitting. I've been watching a few of those "learn continental knitting" videos and started thinking maybe I'm the one who's got it wrong (or they didn't actually teach me German knitting in my German primary school).

The way it's done here, the purl stitches end up twisted and then the knit stitches have to be knit into the front loop rather than the back loop. It makes both purling and knitting more awkward.

[debsie]

@jettevi I made this video for my mum to help her as the way that she has always knit was causing her wrists to ache.

I was personally taught this method from a German lady and that it the reason why I'm calling it German knitting.

I was going to take the video down but I've had so many views and other good comments that I decided against it.

Sorry if my terminology offends you but I wanted to be simply understandable for my mum and I'm happy that others have had pleasure and help from it.

[sueheason]

@debsie I was also taught by a German lady (Marie); certainly not the same one because that was 43 years ago! I am now trying to teach my granddaughter but I haven't done it in so long, I've forgotten her cast-on method. It was certainly simpler than anything I've seen while searching the web today. Do you know of a video that shows how to cast on?

[hese61]

This is not real German style knitting. The way she makes a purl stitch is wrong.

[couthyquine]

But she does say right at the beginning "this is *a way of knitting continental* for those who knit English-style", and that's exactly what this is - knitting English style but carrying the yarn in the left hand. It has some of the advantages of continental style (faster knit stitches) but that purl method looks awkward to me.

[magmalin]

@couthyquine Right, she did say that. She also says, German OR continental. And she's not all wrong as it is basically German, only the twisted purl stitches aren't. But "continental" can mean a lot of different methods. For example in France they knit the way the English do (so why "English" method?), and in eastern Europe there are a variety of methods as well. Really interesting to see all these different ways of knitting.

[nicoletajauca11]

@hese61 yes you're right,the purl stich is wrong; I'm romanian i'm knitting like that and that is not german, russian knit in the same way.....

[one8thcherokee]

A very detailed Video.