Over the weekend I received a curious email. Mary wrote to let me know she had posted a review of Charts Made Simple in Ravelry’s On The Other Hand forum. With Mary’s permission, here’s an excerpt:
I just had a chance to look at a new book that’s out and thought you all might be interested, as it has to do, somewhat, with lefty knitting.
The name of the book is “Charts Made Simple: Understanding Knitting Charts Visually,” by JC Briar.
Now we all know charts are very helpful for left handed (mirror) knitters and I was interested to see what Ms. Briar has to say about charts, never dreaming she might include tips for left handed knitters.
But she does!!!!
Though the book is written for “conventional knitters,” she specifically mentions lefty knitting (without judgment or rancor) as an “unconventional” knitting style (I love that!) and defines it -- correctly, I might add. She then adds this in the preface under the section: “Charts are for every knitter”: “This book assumes you knit conventionally -- but also includes tips for the unconventional knitter.”
She goes on to add: ”are you a true lefty knitter? … Charts are for you, too. Charts show which way each decrease is supposed to lean … And lefties can follow chart rows in the direction that naturally makes sense for them.”
We’re included! This is the first time I’ve ever seen this in a text on knitting. When I read this I just about dropped the book in amazement.
There is an even an entry in the index for lefty knitters and you can zoom directly to the mention of left handed knitting for specific chart issues! Her references to lefty knitting are well placed, she mentions our style without judgment or rancor. She accepts the fact that some knitters knit lefty and she is fully aware that charts are our friends!!!!!!
In other words, she gets it.
Mary’s review caught me off-guard. I mean, I was glad she liked the tips for lefty knitters. But, wow, she really liked them. She was surprised by them, even. And what’s this bit about “without judgment or rancor”? Do lefty knitters often face that much derision?
And then I remembered why I tried to make Charts Made Simple as inclusive as possible.
Years ago – long before I started teaching knitting – I was visiting a yarn shop and chatting with the owner when it came up in conversation that I happen to hold the yarn in my left hand. The shop owner was intrigued, and asked if she could watch me purl.
So we sat down, and I pulled out my knitting, and I did my usual “lazy purl.” The shop owner took one look at the resulting stitch – sitting on the needle with its right leg in back – and jumped out of her seat. “Your stitches are all twisted!” she exclaimed, literally turning her back on me and refusing to watch or listen further.
As you may have guessed, I was a bit put off. More than a bit: I quit visiting her shop.
I can deal with typical knitting instructions. By convention, they assume the knitter always wraps the yarn around the right needle such that the new stitch sits with its right leg in front of the right needle. These conventions suit most knitters, and permit succinct instructions.
I understand what conventional instructions are trying to say, the end goal they’re trying to express. And in my classes I can counsel students into understanding how to interpret those instructions – even if they wrap the yarn “the other way” when they purl, or they knit lefty and create new stitches on their left needle.
What I can’t quite deal with is the notion of a “right” way to knit. A single “right” way implies a multitude of “wrong” ways, and I just don’t buy that. There is no wrong way to knit. It’s all a question of what works for a given knitter: if you enjoy the process and like what you create, then it’s all good.
So, Mary... you shouldn’t have been surprised. I’m all for including all kinds of knitters. And thanks again for the generous review. :-)
Tagged: chit-chat.
Regarding the "judgment or rancor" on left handed knitting, let's just say, JC, that Elizabeth Zimmerman's words from "Knitting Without Tears" are still taken to heart by many a knitter. Here's the quote:
"Actually, there is no wrong way to knit, although there is one way which is nearly wrong. I mean Backwards, or Looking-Glass Knitting. It is not wrong in effect, as its proponents - or shall we say victims? - turn out perfectly creditable garments. but they work in a void of noncommunication, cut off from all run-of-the-mill knitters and nearly all knitting instructions. … They appear to believe that because they write left-handed they should knit left-handed too. (How they can operate a typewriter, or a sewing machine, or a telephone has always baffled me.) They forget that left-handed writing is legible to everybody, while watching backwards knitting leaves the observer feeling as if she had to decide whether to put the clock backwards or forwards in Spring…But the left-handed, finding it awkward to learn to knit, seem to think that this comes from their own left-handedness, and not from the natural awkwardness we all experience when learning a new skill."
Other "experts" in the field have shared this same view. Often on the Ravelry forums like Techniques or Patterns, left handed knitting stirs quite a debate.
» Mary Berghammer
You ask: "And what’s this bit about “without judgment or rancor”? Do lefty knitters often face that much derision?"
The answer, unfortunately, is: Yes. I was blessed to be taught by an enlightened right-hander--my second grade teacher, who also taught me how to write cursive without having to hook my hand as most lefties do--and happily knitted away for decades in ignorance that I was doing it "wrong". I had little trouble with charts, written instructions, cables, etc. Sure, I have to make some simple modifications like mentally transposing the words "left" and "right" in written patterns and making sure my decreases lean the right way, but that's just life-as-usual for a lefty.
I didn't realize that I was knitting in "a void of noncommunication, cut off from all run-of-the-mill knitters and nearly all knitting instructions" until I read EZ's comment. Imagine my surprise--and shock--that such a well-respected and experienced knitter was so unenlightened on this subject. The sad thing is that so many knitters have also read EZ's opinion and have accepted it as knitting gospel; heaven forbid that actual mirror knitters contradict her. The most heated knitting "discussions" that I've been involved in have all been on this subject.
I guess what really gets me is that I teach knitting to both right- and left-handed students. I have taught myself to knit English and Continental in both directions so that I can give my students at least four options of knitting styles to choose from because I know that we don't all have the same fine motor skills and what works best for me (lefty, English) may not work best for you, regardless of which hand you happen to write with.
So, may I add my profound thanks to Mary's. You have done what few designers and knitting authors have bothered to do: acknowledge that there's more than one way to knit and that it's not inherently wrong to knit "unconventionally".
May the knitting gods bless your needles for it!
» Anne Kusilek aka DamascusAnnie
Wow! Everyone knows EZ as The Opinionated Knitter, but I didn’t know she held that particular opinion.
Anne, I’m with you: we don’t all have the same fine-motor skills, and what works for one knitter doesn’t necessarily work for another... but it’s all knitting.
» JC
To be fair to Elizabeth, she comes from a time when left handed anything was strictly forbidden. She has done much for knitting in general, but unfortunately, these words deriding left handed knitting live on. Because of her stature, many a knitter has taken them to heart and continued the myth that left handed knitting is wrong.
I first learned this in my "learn to knit" class in Seattle about 27 years ago. The teacher told me (in front of the class no less when I started, quite innocently knitting left handed when following her instructions) that if I persisted in knitting "that way" I could never knit from a pattern, could never knit anything but scarves or potholders. Imagine my confusion when I could see that my knitting looked like everyone elses -- how could this be?
My first project was thus done right handed, but I struggled with it every stitch. I'm amazed now that I even stuck with knitting, but I did so want to knit! I made the switch to lefty for the next project (a vest) and never looked back.
It has been maddeningly easy to prove that knitting instructor wrong. Turns out I can knit from patterns -- from patterns knit for "right handed knitters" -- I don't have to modify much, if anything. She obviously didn't know what she was talking about!
» MaryB
I'm afraid I'm yet another one who wandered in from Rav (your book looks good). Thank you for your fresh take on charts and being a "gauche" knitter.
» helen aka richild
How timely!
I just had the great good fortune to spend a vastly satisfying 15 minutes with a 6-yr-old left-handed knitter, who's learning to knit "the other way." I helped her cast on, and we knit one row in the shop (at her mother's request), during which I spied that she's being taught "the other way" "because she's left-handed."
(A caveat: I, too, am left-handed, but a conventional Continental knitter.)
Thank goodness I've spent enough time teaching at enough venues to notice, stop, and recalibrate to help the knitter *with what they need to know, how they need to know it*.
We knit that row off the right needle onto the left with great precision and care, and all I felt was necessary was a notice to the mom that the little one is training her hands to knit in a direction that will be different from what she encounters in many knitting books. But in 5 years, I'll be able to send her to the tenth edition of Charts Made Simple, and her knitting life will be that much easier.
» Karen
“Tenth edition”?? Oh, Karen, please stop scaring me like that.
Tenth printing... now we’re talking! :-)
Seriously, Karen, kudos for setting the kid (and her mom) on the enlightened track.
» JC
Hey JC--just happened upon this post (I don't really have much time for browsing, but it is my lunch 15-minutes at the moment). I purl (and actually, knit too) the lazy way as well, and have shied away from teaching technical classes because it is hard for me to slow down and teach conventionally! Hence the focus on the art side...Anyway, I feel honored to be in the same club. I, too, tell students repeatedly that as long as their knitting looks correct (as in no twisted stitches) I don't really care how they get there. Anyone who has taught beginners realizes that some of the motions are instinctive--like whether one wants to have the yarn in the right hand or the left hand. And, the book looks great. I look forward to getting my copy.
» Laura Bryant
Karen, Laura: your comments are making me wonder if the most inclusive teachers—the one who don’t care how students get from point A to point B as long as they like the results—are themselves “unconventional” knitters in some form?
And, Laura—I hope you like the book! :-)
» JC
I too am a lefty knitter- but an ever rarer sub-set. I knit lefty eastern uncrossed. I knit and purl into the back of my stitches, so I have to swap ssk's & k2togs to get them to lean correctly. I'm still not sure what to do when it says kfb- I usually do a kbf. sigh.......... If it wasn't for the help of Annie Modesitt, I would still be making twisted purl stitches, and thanks to Anne Kingstone, I learned that I have to "flip" my decreases. A friend of mine commented once how even my stitches are and laughed that hers are never that uniform, and she's been knitting for years (I started 18 months ago). When she saw me knit though, she wanted to show me the "correct" (righty) way. Why? So I could make wonky stitches like she does? lol I have always been afraid of charts, and now I am going to buy your book and get over the fear! Thank you for knowing there's no "wrong" way to knit. It makes my heart happy. :-)
» Lisa