Portuguese Knitting Tip: How Not to Knit Under Your Nose

September 7th, 2009 |

Author: Eric

One oddity about Portuguese Knitting (PK) is that as you knit you use up the yarn coming from your pin or from your neck. Gradually your WIP rises and rises and ends up closer and closer to your face and you have to pause to pull more yarn into the space between you and your needles. We would rather keep the work flowing smoothly and at a comfortable distance. So as you practice PK you will want to spend some time focusing on how to advance your working yarn.

One thing I do is build in a little tug with my left thumb while I’m flicking the yarn over the needle. In my right hand I control the yarn by going under my index finger, over my middle finger, under my ring finger and over and fully around my pinkie to help keep the tension. When I need to advance the yarn just lifting my pinkie up a bit loosens the brakes on the strand and if I do this when I tug with my left thumb it works out fine.

Experiment and practice and you will find a way that works for you to make your PK flow smoother.

If you need videos on PK check out the links I have in the Information box on the right. Thanks for stopping by.

- Eric