Stitches

How to hold yarn in knitting?

I hold the yarn in my right hand when I knit and I'm really slow. I've seen people that hold it in their left hand and it looks faster. Is there a tutorial some where that shows how to hold it in your left hand?

Public Comments

1. Yes, there are a lot of them. :-) knittinghelp.com has a ton of great videos. http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knit-stitch I learned to knit from this website, and I knit with the yarn in my left hand. If you search youtube or google videos for continental knitting, you'll get a lot of good videos too. Some of those are hit or miss, unfortunately. Here's a good one explaining wrapping the yarn around your fingers to adjust your tension, and the mechanical motion of continental knitting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuRLFl36tDY I hope these help you, and good luck with your knitting. It's great fun!
2. I also hold my yarn in my right hand, across the palm and not laced through or around any fingers. I am a very fast knitter and have done well in some speed contests. It doesn't matter which hand or how you hold the yarn, it depends on how comfortable you are with moving the yarn and how easy it becomes for you. I do Continental and combination knitting which is convenient for different types of knitting procedures, but it does not make me any faster. Have also taught many students to do all methods of knitting and had some complain about being slow no matter how they held the yarn. Some methods are easier on the hands if you have arthritis and some are easier if you want to learn to knit backwards too. Speed does not always require the yarn be held in a certain way.