How to knit faster. Hi everyone! My name is
norman, I run the blog nimblen-eedles.com and today I want to show you 10 speed knitting tips.
Many beginners want to learn how to knit faster and I guess there are just as many tips floating
around the internet. Some of them are quite difficult to implement while others are even wrong
- like you would have to switch to continental knitting to get faster. So in this video, I want
to combine some really easy and time-proven tips anyone can implement right away and others
that may require a bit of practice. But I will make sure to include a lot of
slow-motion videos of me knitting, so you can follow along and see how I knit step
by step. And then I will also try to talk about some common misconceptions and even outright
problems knitting too fast can cause. So let's dive right into it and
show you how to knit faster. Speed knitting tip number one: Learn
flicking or picking! I just said it. It's a common misconception that you need
to learn continental style to get faster. Sure enough, continental knitting can be pretty
fast - especially if you learn how to pick which I will show you in a second. But a lot of beginners
aren't even aware that there are different knitting styles across the globe. Some of them
slower and some of them faster. Bbut if you google flicking or lever knitting for a second, you
will find tons of tutorials to speed up your English throwing as well. So knitting faster
is not about changing your knitting style. It's about optimizing it. Now I'm a continental knitter
and I will show you that part of speed knitting in a second. While I know how to flick, I don't
think i'm the right person to teach that. However, there are nine other tips included
in this video you can implement regardless of your style. So let's head
over to my desk and I show you how I do continental picking. Let's show you the school
book continental knit stitch first. You insert the knitting needle from left to right, wrap
the yarn around counter-clockwise, pull through, and drop the stitch. I'll link you to my full
tutorial on how I knit the knit stitch up in here and in the description below. Now, all that
inserting and wrapping takes up a lot of time. So instead, you can just pick the yarn through
like this. Let me show you that a bit slower and I will exaggerate the motions. So, I barely insert
the needle but then I extend the loop to the right to the right, and then my middle finger.. it
guides the yarn up in here... It keeps it in place so I can pick it up. Again, I can pick
it up from there. Let's do that in slow motion! And it only works if you keep a nice tension.
If you're working yarn is too loose, you will never be able to pick up the yarn. Also, you might
notice how I flick my left hand to the middle with each stitch. That way, I can pick up the yarn at
a much better angle. It's just a tiny flick but it helps to align the yarn in a way you can pick it
up. If you keep your needle straight, you won't be able to pick up the yarn really easily. Of course
you can also bring your right hand further to the middle as well but I think that's a bit more
uncomfortable. And by learning how to pick you can really speed up your continental knitting a lot.
And again, there's a similar method available for English knitters. Now before I go on and show
you nine more much easier tips you can implement straight away, here is an important reminder:
I really love shooting these videos but I need your support. So why don't you give me a thumbs-up
right now, leave a nice comment, or even subscribe to my channel? And now I wanted to show you how
it looks like when I'm knitting at full speed. Obviously, I'm sitting in my photo booth here and
it's not really comfortable and easy to knit fast. Still, I think you might get a good impression of
what is possible if you perfect this technique. Speed knitting tip number two: Use metal
needles. A lot of beginners start on bamboo needles and that is just fine. But if you
are using some slick metal needles, you will instantly notice the difference and how much
easier your stitches glide across the needle. Obviously, the stitches may fall off or slip
off so much easier. So, it does take some practice. I'll link you to my review of the best
interchangeable metal needle sets up in here and in the description below in case that is something
you are interested. Also, you should be aware that coated metal needles are faster to knit.
And on top of that, the blunter the tips are, the faster it is to knit plain stockinette
stitch. Now a lot of people are fans of ChiaoGoo but I don't think they are really good for fast
knitting because they are not coated and the tips are really sharp so you can easily split the yarn.
I'm knitting with Knitter's Pride Nova Platina here and for me they are the fastest needles.
However, it's not that easy. As soon as you're starting to knit lace and other patterns with
complicated stitches, sharp tips might actually help you to knit faster because it's so much
easier to insert your needle into two or three stitches at the same time. Tip number three: Bunch
up stitches on your left needle to knit faster. It's really important to realize that just
optimizing the way you knit the knit stitch will only get you so far. You also need to improve
all the other little actions you need to complete a project or a row. So what I always do is, I
bunch up quite a lot of stitches and keep them here in between my fingers. And this gives me a
nice little reservoir of stitches I can easily push forward so I don't have to constantly take
breaks and push more stitches towards the tips. Because that's what a lot of beginners do,
they knit like this, and then it's getting harder to knit, and then they need to bring more
stitches to the front. And every time you do this, you take a break and this takes time. Now, don't
overdo this. Don't do it like this. Because when the stitches here at the front are too close
together, then it's much harder to insert your needle as well, and they could even slip off. So I
always use my middle finger as a little buffer so the majority of stitches are here between my
ring finger and my middle finger and there's only a couple of stitches here at the front.
And then I transport them forward. And this brings me to my speed knitting tip number
four: Turn your fingers into a conveyor belt! Let's take a look at me knitting a
couple of stitches one more time: I'm not really going fast now so you can see it
a bit better. And if you look really closely, you will see how my left middle finger is constantly
pushing the next stitch forward and while my thumb transports more stitches forward from further
back. And my right index finger is transporting the stitch I just finished further down the right
needle. Let's take a look in slow motion again. And this helps me using the reservoir
of stitches I bunched up here further down my needle quite efficiently
without constantly taking breaks. Knitting tip number five: Knit looser! If you want
to knit faster then we need to talk about tension. The tighter you knit, the harder it will be to
insert your needle and pull the yarn through. So by forcing yourself to knit looser
,you can speed up things quite a bit. Now personally, I don't like to knit with such
a loose gauge because it creates a kind of drape and stretchiness in your fabric I actually don't
like to see in most of my projects - but this is a personal preference. Still, you will notice that
I'm not really gripping my needles really tightly. They rest quite lightly in my hands and my
stitches.... there's still enough leeway so I can find the opening of the
next stitch really really easily. Because a lot of beginners are virtually
strangling the knitting needles and they're gripping so hard their hands almost shake.
Probably because they're afraid to drop stitches or the needles. So it will take a bit of practice
to relax a bit but it's really important. Not only to knit faster but also to relieve your
wrists and the muscles controlling your hand. Because otherwise, this might lead to pain.
Tip number six: knit closer to the tip. The further up the taper you knit, the farther you
need to move your needles back and forth. And this takes time. Obviously not seconds but if you
want to knit more than just one stitch per second, every millisecond counts. And this has a nice side
effect: A lot of people struggle with stitches like SSK and their decreases end up looking a bit
too loose and wonky. And that's mainly because they stretch out the stitches way too much as
they knit them. And by knitting closer to the tip, you prevent this kind of problems. Tip number
seven: Tension your yarn the right way: This is how I tension my yarn: I wrap it around
my pinky finger two times, or sometimes only once depending on the yarn, and then I
bring it across the back of my hand, and I let it rest here on top
of my index finger. Others wrap the yarn around their index finger like
this, and some people kind of weave it in through their hands like this. I won't be
able to tell you what works for you. However, if you tension your yarn in a way that you notice
your finger coming closer to the left needle with every stitch, and then you need to take a break,
there's probably room for improvement. The yarn should glide through your hand quite effortlessly,
and you probably shouldn't ever take big breaks. So if you notice your finger coming
closer to your needle, change it a bit. This will feel awkward at the beginning. So I
recommend knitting a little coaster. I'll put my video on how I knit a coaster up in here so
you can knit along. Because only after... I don't know... you finished a little project with a
thousand stitches or so ...you can really judge if a different tensioning method is better or
not. Tip number eight: Use both hands. So when I'm knitting stitches, you might see that I'm
moving both my hands. My left hand isn't still, it moves up and down as well and that shortens
the distance my right hand has to move. Think of it like this: My right hand
needs two milliseconds to move up and down five millimeters or I meet it halfway,
which means I only need to move up maybe 2.5 millimeters and this will take only
half as much time. And likewise, you could do all the leveraging with your right hand only or
you can support those motions with your left hand for a similar effect. Now obviously this
will only help you to knit a tiny bit faster. But imagine you implemented all the other
techniques I showed you and maybe you were able to achieve one stitch per second, and
now you want to go faster than that. Well, this will help. Tip number nine: Practice in slow
motion! With everything I showed you, you will probably have quite a lot of things to practice.
But when you do that try to do it in slow motion. Don't try to knit as fast as possible. Instead,
exaggerate and go really really slowly, and once your mind and your muscles learned the
new motions, increase the speed one bit at a time. Think of it as learning how to drive. At the
beginning, you probably didn't push the gas pedal all the way down to the bottom either. So
go up one gear at a time. Because if you try to knit as fast as possible without the proper
muscle control, you will only end up with sloppy stitches in the best case, and in the
worst case you might even injure your joints. So take it slowly and practice in slow motion.
Tip number 10. We are back in my living room for speed knitting tip number 10, and that's because
it is very important to work on your posture. A lot of people, they slouch in their favorite
armchair or on the couch when they're knitting. Now, there's nothing wrong with that per se, and
I certainly have to note that I'm not a physician. Still, knitting is a bit like an office job,
and we hopefully all know that you shouldn't slouch in your chair squinting at tiny little
letters on the screen for eight hours straight. And if you think about it, knitting is remarkably
similar to that. It's also close-up work, and you don't change your position at all - or not really
very often. So I think it's very important that you find a nice posture, that you take breaks,
that you stretch out your hands & your shoulders ever so often, and you stay a bit dynamic.
Also the muscles in your eyes will welcome a bit of change as well. They were never meant to
focus on just one spot for four hours straight. Because if you don't take care then you
might end up with tendonitis or a tennis elbow. Shoulders and neck pain is also something
knitters experience quite often. However, again, do consult a professional if that is a topic
or concern of you. I can just point you in that general direction here. Now posture itself won't
make you knit faster. However, it will ensure that you can maintain an overall high knitting speed
for much longer. And really do think about the long term as well because most knitters want to
continue knitting their whole life and not stop at 40 because they churned out one sweater per
day, and now their wrists are constantly in pain. And here's one bonus tip: Use a different yarn.
Some yarns are really fuzzy others split really easily, and yet others have a lot of friction. So
instead of knitting with your 100 % wool homespun, you can change to a slick superwash four-ply
merino blend. The less friction a yarn has, the easier it will be to knit because this means
it will glide through your hands faster and tensioning your stitches is easier as well.
And that is a big factor! Now obviously, I don't recommend changing to a different yarn just
because it's faster to knit. That would be... well strange. So this last tip is more an explanation
of why sometimes things are a bit slower. I recently knit this pair of socks with naturally
dyed plastic-free organic 100% sheep wool. And this yarn was super super sturdy, and it was
decidedly slower to knit. But of course, that's something you have to live with if you want these
properties. At the very end, I would like to add one really important note: Knitting is not a race!
Especially if you're connected to the knitting communities online, there's always this one lady
that finished 12 pairs of socks and three sweaters in January, while you are still working on that
small baby blanket you started last summer. And I guess it's very easy to suffer from impostor
syndrome in that context, and get the feeling like you are doing something wrong, or you're
not worthy, or you're not made for knitting. And I can't stress enough how important it is to
not compare yourself with others in such a harmful way. You know, just because someone knits faster
doesn't mean the hobby will bring them more joy. And also, you never know their background. Maybe
that lady I just mentioned has been knitting for a living for 30 years and knits all day while
you are juggling three kids, the household, and a full-time job. And also, different people
bring different qualities to the table. Maybe they knit faster but you are much better at keeping
a nice tension. Or you can knit complicated patterns much more effortlessly while they are
only good at stockinette stitch and ribbing. Or maybe you have a hand for picking the right
gift for someone while they might indeed knit the sweater much faster but the person they
knitted it for wanted it in a different color or a different yarn and they never end up wearing
it. So what I'm saying is, always look at the full picture. And of course, realize that the reason
why it might bother you that you are slow is that you care about this hobby so much. And that's
something positive. So never say to yourself: "I'm such a bad knitter, I'm much slower than the
others". Rather say: I love this hobby so much and here's something I can still improve. But it's
really important to never devaluate your love for this hobby in any way. And at the end of the day,
your main concern should always be how neat you can finish a project and how much joy it brings
you - and not how fast you were able to finish. Speed knitting should never be a compromise but
always a way to optimize your hobby a little bit. So with that being said, I really hope U
was able to show you some nice tips and tricks on how to knit faster. Please, give
me a big thumbs up if you enjoyed watching, comment with your questions or your feedback and
of course, consider subscribing to my channel in case you don't want to miss any new videos.
Happy knitting and enjoy the rest of your day!
