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    Lever, Not Pulley

    By Susan | November 18, 2008

    The Noro has arrived, the colors are gorgeous, and the scarf has been started and is looking great.

    Which you’ll have to take my word for, since my camera isn’t available to take a picture right now. Whoops!

    I will say this, though: I never thought I’d enjoy knitting a scarf with 1×1 ribbing. But I’m loving it, for a reason that has nothing to do with the yarn.

    Let’s take a trip back to July, maybe August. I’m riding on the el in Chicago, standing in the aisle on a crowded morning train. I’m standing over a woman who is knitting. Of course, I have to check out her knitting and see what she’s working on. But my eye is caught not by her project, but by her knitting technique.

    She was holding the yarn in her right hand, and knitting English, but wasn’t throwing her yarn the way I was used to. Instead, she kept the working yarn looped over her index finger, and just flicked it over the right needle as needed.

    I gave it a try on my next project, and was amazed. This way of holding the yarn felt natural, but also speeded up my knitting. Also, I had always had a problem with my ribbing, where the last knit stitch before the purl was always misshapen; I had tried everything, but couldn’t figure out how to make my ribbing more even. Magically, by working my stitches in this new way, all of my stitches, including my ribbing, were much more even and pretty. Amazing!

    I also didn’t mind switching from knitting to purling, or even purling across a row – it felt so similar to knit stitches, that I didn’t mind working them. Finally, ribbing wasn’t a frustration. Amazing!

    Thank you, random Chicago knitter. I love my new knitting technique, which I have discovered is called “English Lever” knitting. For those who remember the knitting scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I believe this is how Audrey Hepburn was knitting. So there you go.

    Here’s a video showing the technique. Someday, when I get my camera in my hand and can figure it out, I’ll try to record myself knitting. In the meantime, this will give you a good example:

    Topics: Knitting | 1 Comment »

    One Response to “Lever, Not Pulley”

    1. jenny Says:
      November 19th, 2008 at 7:47 am

      Thank you for this post! i’ve always knitted like this but never knew there was a different name for it, now i can explain myself a lot better. Enjoy the noro scarf, its been in my queue for such a long time now
      Jenny