Knitting Basics: How to Hold Yarn and Needles – English Style
Your own preferences will also affect your holding position.
English knitting is a knitting style that involves holding the yarn in the dominant hand, alongside the working needle. While it is common in the British Isles and North America, English knitting is practiced by knitters all over the world and is probably the most common.
How to hold the needles:
1. Hold the needles with the stitches in your left hand. Wrap the yarn around your little finger and then around the index finger on your right hand.
2A. Hold the working needle with your right hand, controlling the tension with your right index finger.
2B. Another method is to place the working needle between the thumb and index finger of your right hand as if you were holding a pencil.
The trick to knitting faster is efficiency, so try to make the stitch in one smooth, fluid motion.
Once you become comfortable holding your needles, you will automatically increase your knitting speed.
And next time I’ll share with you some tips and helpful information about the Continental style of knitting and the other methods I use.
Happy Knitting!
The key to faster knitting isn’t moving your fingers faster. It’s all about moving them more efficiently.
Everyone has a different way of holding the yarn and knitting needles. This is the most difficult thing to master when learning to knit, and it’s important that you find a method that works for you.
The method I suggest can speed up your work and help prevent many errors from the very beginning. It will partly depend on which of two basic ways you choose to knit. If you use the English method or “throwing”, you hold the yarn in your right hand; with the Continental method, you hold it in your left. If you are left-handed, and you cannot master either the English or Continental method, you can use an alternative technique, which I will tell you later. Today let’s focus on the English style of knitting. I find this way the easiest for beginners.
The English Style requires three separate motions to make a stitch: Insert the right needle into the next stitch on the left needle.
Lift the right hand (with the yarn tensioned in it) and “throw” the yarn around the tip of the right needle.
Place the right hand back on the right needle and use the needle tip to pull the new stitch through.
