Just to minimize the possibilities for future confusion (or at least to give me a place to refer back to when said confusion arises), I want to explain something about how I explain things -- a meta-explanation, if you will.
In all cases where I do not explicitly specify otherwise, my explanations are made with the assumption that the reader is knitting in a way that starts with the stitches on the left-hand needle and causes new stitches to be made upon the right-hand needle, so that the knitter moves from right to left across the fabric. I can, and upon request I very well may, explain things for those persons who knit in the left-to-right direction, but my general expectation is that if you are one of the people who knits in that fashion, you are probably well-accustomed to translating explanations to suit your orientation already, and that any attempt to accommodate you generally would be redundant for you and confusing for others. Therefore, rather than constantly trying to provide two sets of explanations, or to use some other nomenclature like "dominant hand" and "non-dominant hand" (especially confusing if one is a left-hander who knits right-to-left!), I am going to make the above assumption. If you need help translating to the other case, however, please ask; I am usually accommodating.
Furthermore, unless I say otherwise, my explanations contain the assumption that the knitter's stitches are oriented in the standard Western fashion, to wit, with their rightmost (leading) legs in front of the needle, and their leftmost (trailing) legs in back. Those knitters who knit in combined style will find that their orientation after purling does not match this, and will need to compensate in some instances. Because these instances are fairly limited, and are something I am generally aware of, I will try to specify when such compensation is required, but I am not promising always to do so; if you knit combined, you need to learn enough about the structure of knitting that you know when the Eastern orientation of your purls makes a difference and when it does not. If you are having difficulties figuring out whether this applies to a given technique, however, please ask, and I will try to clarify it for you.
To the best of my knowledge, my explanations will not contain an unstated assumption of either the Continental or the English style of Western knitting. In the vast majority of cases, whether the yarn is held in the right hand or the left hand makes no difference at all to how knit stitches are formed, and so no assumption is necessary; in those cases where which hand is being employed for yarn control makes a difference, I will explain for each.
What a lucky break to happen on your blog. Thanks for sharing your expertise. I'll keep reading and hoping you'll discuss fair isle and intarsia, two areas I've yet to jump into. Your explanations are so thorough, I'm sure I'd approach it with a confidence I don't currently possess.
Posted by: Loretta | December 20, 2005 at 12:47 PM
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Posted by: carole McD | March 29, 2006 at 03:26 PM