Knit for Brains » Portuguese Knitting

Herringbone Stitch for Portuguese Style Knitting

Eric — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:01:03 +0000

Herringbone stitch is a strange one to do on Portuguese style knitting but it can be done. The trick is you have to do the knit stitches like an Eastern knit stitch, sorta. You don’t have to take the yarn from the usual Portuguese style position around you neck or off a pin or pendant, but rather manipulate it a bit with your index fingers. It’s not that hard when you get the knack of it. Here’s the video I did (special, crappy web cam version).

Written instructions are below the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkt5djBYOy8

Cast on loosely, like around two needles, then remove one of the needles.

Right side:

Slip first stitch as if to purl, slip second as if to knit, (both loops should be facing right, meaning loop leg nearest left needle tip is in back).

* With yarn on top of the right as if to knit, insert left needle through both loops but in front of the right needle. Right needle tip is now behind left needle.

Using your fingers move the working yarn around the back of the right needle tip, to the left side of the right needle tip, and pull it back to the right, across your side of the needle; hold it to the right, down and away from you with your right index finger, pull your loop through as if to purl (out the right side of the loops) – because you turned the loops to the right in the slip slip this will in effect – but not process – be what I call a “half-Eastern” knit stitch, yet it will produce a Western, left-angled loop like you get in western knitting. Slide only first loop off left needle.*

(I guess I will call that the “half-eastern, Portguguese style knit stitch.)

Repeat * to * above, across. When you get to the end and have just one loop on the left needle do the same half-eastern knit stitch in that one loop.

Wrong side:
Do normal Portuguese style purl two together, but slip only one loop off. Repeat until you have one stitch remaining. You have to knit this last stitch or it will undo itself and you will have a large loop at the end of the row. Do a normal Portuguese knit stitch in that one loop.

Welcome to New Knitters, All Knitters, Male Knitters, and BTW, Try The Portuguese Knitting Style

Eric — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:42:46 +0000

Hello! My aim with this blog is to share useful tips and discoveries I make as I learn more and more about knitting. I’m a guy, so I urge guys to knit and everyone to nudge the men they know to learn to knit.

May I recommend you browse for articles in the SITE MAP tab above. It’s the easiest way to get the most out of this site.

And if you like what you see, remember to SIGN UP for updates in the box in the right column. You will get an email when I post a new article.

Especially for anyone who thinks knitting is hard, please try the Portuguese knitting method. It’s easy to master and fast. When I get going I can do a stitch a second. I have a few posts here about it under Techniques, but no basic instructions, so check out the youtube videos.

Again, Portuguese style knitting is VERY easy to learn. It’s easy to control the yarn, and purling is so easy it’s a sin. I also knit Continental style and Eastern European Knitting style depending on my mood or need, but I always switch to Portuguese style for runs of purl stitches.

You work with the yarn either around the back of your neck, or over a pin near your left shoulder, or with the knitting pendant I developed that helps a lot to correct tension issues and protect your clothes from pin holes. Check out the article on the knitting pendant.

It’s called Portuguese style in the USA but it is known across the Mediterranean. I’ve heard the style is used in parts of Italy, Greece, Albania and Turkey as well as many parts of central and South America such as Peru and Brasil where it was brought by the Portuguese. If you know where else it is used and what the style is called there, please comment this post!

Take a look at the links in the Information list on the right, further down the page. There are some great videos on youtube, and there are DVDs available as well, including one devoted to socks, both by Andrea Wong. The DVDs go into greater specifics for various situations you may run into.

Here’s a video to give you a quick intro to Portuguese style:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzfYS9_t27k

Portuguese Knitting Tip: How Not to Knit Under Your Nose

Eric — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:08:57 +0000

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

Learn to avoid the dreaded Portuguese Tug-o-War!