Knit for Brains dot Net

Just got the Andrea Wong Portuguese Knitting DVD and it is great. Plays fine in my computer – someone said it wouldn’t play on any of her DVD players. I tried it on my Sanyo DVD player for my TV and it works fine.

This is great! As I was first attempting – literally – to get a grip in knitting I kept thinking I needed to be an octopus to knit. Controlling the yarn tension and moving the yarn around the needle in the continental or English style of knitting is insanity-making for me, and probably for many newcomers. But I bet that even seasoned knitters would love this just for watching a few seconds of the lessons in Portuguese knitting.

The stitches are fluid and simple, and the knitting pin controls both the trajectory and tension of the yarn just so beautifully. From knit to pearl you don’t have to move the yarn from back to front, but with a flick of your thumb you move it to be over or under the right needle depending on what stitch you are doing. In effect, this puts it behind or in front, but as the yarn is always coming from your pin or pendant its still easier than moving front to back or back to front as in other styles.

I’ve only watched a minute or two and felt the tension leaving my body. I feel so much better about learning to knitting. I admit, I’ve barely learned the knit and pearl stitches English style and have hated every minute of it. Now I’m free! You’ve got to learn this method!

Sunday I joined Netflix to get the knitting dvd they had and it arrived yesterday, but I may not even bother with it. It is called Knit Stitches in Motion. I guess I should see if there’s anything on it that is generally useful, or maybe patterns. I’ll let you know. (UPDATE: not worth your time, even for learning other styles.)

Again, I haven’t watched much yet, but I’ve heard that they also use hooked knitting needles sometimes as well. That would be handy as well, but it looks like if done right you wouldn’t need them. I may modify a pair of my bamboo units to see how that works. I fiddled with knitting with a couple of crochet hooks and it was a lot easier to control the yarn, but that was with English style. I didn’t need to fret about losing the yarn off the tips of the needles when pulling it through the stitch. In Portuguese knitting the angle of the needles and the yarn almost guarantee you won’t lose it. Yea!

I’m thinking of starting a movement to have continental and English styles banned and all the books burned. Memory and mention of them should be removed from all books and web sites, like how Rameses removed the name of Moses from all monuments in Egypt! Just kidding of course. But that’s how much I like the Portuguese style of knitting. It was so much easier to learn. Give it a try.