Knitting English or Continental? Which method is more effective?

If you're a fan of Ravelry, social media, or YouTube tutorial videos, you've probably already seen the debate between English knitting and continental knitting.

Is it really faster to knit continental style? Should you rethink your knitting style? Will it benefit you in any way?

In this article, I'll introduce you to the different ways to knit and their benefits. I'll conclude by sharing my thoughts on each.

Knitting English or Continental, which is the most effective method?

1. Knitting in English or Continental style, flicking, leveraging, throwing* etc. but not only that

In this article, I will present you with different ways of knitting, but it will not be exhaustive because there are a multitude of ways to knit, even if the two most classic are English knitting and Continental knitting. And these methods are distinguished mainly by the way of holding the yarn. This is what I will detail in this article.

But of course, it's not just the way you hold the yarn that can change your knitting style. Here are some lesser-known examples:

*I will deliberately use untranslated English terms in this article because, to my knowledge, there is no translation for these terms.

1.1. What is the orientation of the meshes?

Surprisingly, it's not just the way you hold the yarn that has an impact on the knitting method, and I discovered this as I gave classes and received questions.

I found that some people knit their stitches as if they were twisting them. So instead of having a stitch facing front to back and right to left – Western Stitches Mount in English, this stitch was facing front to back and left to right or Eastern Stitches Mount.
You can imagine that this will have an impact on the explanations given for making, for example, a decrease or a twisted stitch.

If this is you, you will need to adapt the patterns because the majority of patterns are written for and by people who use the Western Mount method.

1.2. What is the orientation of the knitting?

In the video on the history of knitting, I told you about the history of knitting and why we mostly knit from right to left.

But there are some people who knit from left to right. This can also be used to avoid reverse knitting.

This makes reading the patterns much more complicated since everything is reversed! For example, a left-facing intercalary increase (AIG) will become a right-facing intercalary increase (AID).

2. Knitting English or Continental style, flicking, leveraging, throwing… the heart of the matter

2.1. Knitting in English style

English knitting is probably the most classic way of knitting here in Belgium and France

The thread is held in the right hand and you “throw” the thread (“throwing”).

In fact, we often say that you "jump the toad" when you let go of the thread to pass it between the two needles.

2.2. Knitting in Continental Style

Continental knitting often refers to holding the yarn in your left hand (i.e., the hand opposite the needle that picks up the stitches). You can say that you are "picking" the yarn.

This style of knitting is also known as German knitting. This style originated in continental Europe, particularly recognized in Germany, and began to spread to surrounding countries in the early 19th century. It was revived in the United States and England by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

This style of knitting is particularly fashionable at the moment because it is considered to be faster, which is not necessarily the case.

2.3. Portuguese knitting

This method is particularly common in Portugal but also in the Balkans.

And its great feature is that you manage the thread tension by placing the thread around your neck and securing it with a safety pin.

2.4. Irish Cottage Knitting

This style is a method that is very similar to the English method with a few differences: the needle is held between the thumb and index finger which act as a pivot to move the needle.

The needle is held like a pen, which is not the case with other knitting methods. Irish Cottage Knitting is considered one of the fastest methods for knitting.

There are also other knitting styles specific to certain regions such as Shetland style, Russian style, and Norwegian style.

3. Conclusion

There are a multitude of ways to knit, whether you are left-handed, right-handed, have acquired small adaptation strategies over time, are from a particular region, etc.

In conclusion, I can't say that there is ONE knitting method that is better than another. The best method is the one that works for you, and it's the one that will improve your skills, speed, fluidity, and tension. The fastest knitters in the world all use different methods.

So don't force yourself to change your method if you don't want to or don't feel the need! The way you approach knitting is something very personal; whether it's slow, medium or fast, whether it's English or Russian style, your way of knitting belongs to you and the most important thing is that YOU find pleasure in it.

I hope this article has given you some insight into some of the ways people knit around the world.

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See you soon,

Christelle