New Knitting Technique: Knitting Backwards

First and foremost – it’s my birthday today! Yay! Much thanks to Mr. Martini and all of my friends for the birthday wishes, I really appreciate them!

*************************

I’m a member of the Knitting Guild of America, and one of the perks of membership is a subscription to “Cast On” magazine. I’m going to admit up front that I usually don’t read this magazine cover to cover the way I do my Interweave Knits or Knitscenes. The layout and photos and patterns just don’t capture my attention the way the other knitting magazines do.

But this month was different. For whatever reason, I was captivated by a couple of the technique articles, including double-knitting a tube, as well as learning to knit/purl “backwards” for entrelac. Because entrelac is knit in extremely small portions of stockinette, sometimes only a few stitches wide, the knitting backwards technique can help the process go faster, as you’re not always stopping to flip your work to the wrong side.

The magazine had an entire page dedicated to the technique, so last night I decided to give it a try. The directions were very clear, and after just a few minutes, I had made this swatch:

Not bad, right? I did notice that my gauge was very, very loose using this technique, so swatching for future projects will definitely be required. But it wasn’t nearly as awkward as I thought it would be. I’m an English knitter, meaning I hold the working yarn in my right hand, which is how the directions were written. I’m not sure if it’s required to hold the yarn in the right hand or not, so Continental knitters will have to give it a try!

If this is a technique you’re interested in, definitely look for the August-October 2009 copy of “Cast On” for the instructions. I’m sure there are many techniques to be found online as well. Good luck!