Knitting is one of the most famous activities around the whole world. The history tells us that the act of interlacing yarn or thread in a series of connected loops with needles started many centuries ago, as the oldest knitted items have been found in Egypt and are dated between the 11th and 14th centuries AD.
In addition to its beautiful history, researches have also shown that the exercise brings many benefits to the mental health of its participants due to the fact knitting has an enormous influence on calming anxiety and relieving stress, as well as reducing the chances of memory loss and cognitive deterioration.
Regarding the activity itself, there are two concepts which beginners knitters are more likely to make a confusion and associate them as the same thing: knitting styles and knitting methods.
Knitting styles such as the English, the continental and the lever are influenced by the way you wrap your yarn around your fingers and the way you hold your needles and yarn. On the other hand, the three knitting methods are determined by the way you form the stiches themselves.
But, which are they? Let’s find out.
Western Method
The Western method is considered the most popular pattern used by knitters in Europe. In this method, the leading leg (or right leg) is forward for both knit and purl stitches, the yarn is wrapped around the needle counterclockwise, the front loop technique is used for stitches, while the back loop technique is used for twisted stitches.
It is also said that this method is most likely to be efficient with all knitting styles, even though there might be some adjustments that need to be done depending on the style you choose.
For example, the Western pattern tend to make it more difficult for a knitter using the continental style and the knit stitch in the Portuguese style. However, the difficulties are not an enormous challenge to a knitter adopting this method and the final result tends to be the expected.
Eastern Method
The Eastern method is the most popular mode in Arabic countries, Eastern Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. Additionally, this procedure is also known as the oldest method of stitch orientation. This methods basically follows the complete opposite orientation of the Western, as in the Eastern method: the leading leg is back for both knit and purl stitches, the yarn is wrapped around the needle clockwise, the back loop technique is used for stitches and the front loop technique is used for twisted stitches.
This method tends to work with all kinds of knitting styles. It is also said that this pattern is most likely to make the purl stitch easier to be executed than in the Western method and it is more useful when a knitter is adopting the continental knitting style.
Combination Method
The third and last method used by many knitters is the Combination method. The name of this pattern gives the exact explanation of what it is: the mix of both Western and Eastern method.
For example, for knit stiches: the leading leg is forward, the yarn is wrapped around the needle
counterclockwise, the back loop technique is used for stitches and the front loop technique is used for twisted stitches.
However, for purl stitches: the leading leg is back, the yarn is wrapped around the needle clockwise, the front loop technique is used for stitches, while the back loop technique is used for twisted stitches.
By using this method, the stiches face both directions on the knitting needles and knitters must pay attention in order to make sure the right knitting needle is between the legs of the stitches in a way that it will not twist or cross the stitches.
It is time to knit!
Now that you know all the three methods, it is time to start knitting and put the knowledge you earned into practice.
As mentioned before, knitting will only bring benefits to your day to day life because to the fact this activity will help you to reduce anxiety and stress, two of the most common problems people have to face these days, and it will also help you to insert a new ability to your skill set.
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