How do you knit?

This might seem a terrifically odd question but please bear with me. How do you knit?

I’m not talking about the technical mechanics of the knitting process; although that is important.  How do you approach a pattern?  How do you decide in what order you will knit the pieces and put them together?

For myself, I pretty much do it the way the pattern suggests, start with the back of the garment.  But somehow I find that this is a slow way to go about things in many ways.  Usually the back is the biggest piece of the garment, and, yes, I know that sometimes the back has to be knitted first, because of the neckline, or whatever, on the front; if it starts to be shaped before starting the armhole shaping, if you get what I mean.

My mother, who had her own knitting company, always knitted the sleeves first; she said they were the parts she disliked most and she wanted to get them over with.  My grandmother, to my mind, had the most peculiar way of knitting, she cast on each piece, did the welt/ribbing and then put each piece aside to be knitted later, because she hated doing rib or welts.  She got all the bits she hated with over first, so that the rest of the garment was pure pleasure for her to knit.

Then (deep breath)  there’s sewing up; do you leave it to the end or do it as you go along.  Both my mother and grandmother did it as they went along.  Neither could bear having a pile of pieces to assemble at the end.  Indeed, my Gran, went so far as to only ever do one seam at a time per day, and she would really put her heart and soul into that one seam.  I have to say her seams were the most immaculate and professional I’ve ever seen.

Do you mattress stitch or do you knit each seam together?  My mother always swore by having the same number of rows to be joined together, where possible and knitting one stitch from each row together to form her seams.  She also used this method when attaching the front bands – knitting together the edge stitch of the garment with the edge stitch of the front band? 

Continental or not – this is another question?  Both my Mum and my Gran were continental knitters; they both swore by it; the both said that they could knit much faster in this way. Personally, much as I try to master continental, I find myself all fingers and thumbs, so I tend to swear at it (between you and me); could be cos I’m left-handed, I don’t know?!

You’re probably wondering by now – if Radders has flipped and why I am asking all these strange questions.  Truth be told, I’m kind of going through a bit of a hiatus with my knitting,  can’t seem to settle with it.  Everything I start (with the back) I seem to be taking an instant dislike to at the moment and end up frogging.  I just can’t seem to get to a place where I can say ‘Oh, this is really working for me and I am really enjoying it.’  I don’t want to put my knitting aside, I just want to experiment with different methods and techniques, in the hope that I’ll get my knitting passion back.  So I’d be really interested to know what everyone thinks and if you could drop me a comment with some suggestions please – that would be really great.  I’d really love to know everyone else’s thoughts on their ‘knitting psychology’.  What works for you and why?

See you all soon (hopefully a more fulfilled knitter who swears less at her knitting).

Love and Hugs Radders xx