Retraining my hands...

Any home ed group we go to these days is being turned into a knitting and crocheting circle as more and more people get funky with yarn. It makes me happy. :-) At the drama group last week, the Marias each showed up with new projects. ( I don't know why I call them the Marias. One is Irish, the other Australian, although both are lovely people.) Aussie Maria was making a scarf in a lacy stitch that looked way to complicated for a beginner. Irish Maria was practising her knitting and was talking about the videos she had seen of people Continental knitting.

I didn't know it for years, but apparently, I am a thrower. This is what the English way of knitting is called, in which you use your right hand to wrap (throw) the yarn over the needles. Continental knitters hold the working yarn in their left hand. I have tried this once or twice and always thought I wanted to learn to do it properly, but it all takes time and practise, and I am not always that patient.

But the Marias have reminded me how great it can be to learn something new. Like how proud I was the first time I turned a heel. :-) So I am looking at the videos on Knitting help.com and practising my continental style. I seem to have the basics, but I need to retrain the muscles in my hands to know what they are doing, and figure out how to adjust tension. Here I go....