How to Knit Continental Style for Faster, Smoother Knitting

Steps

1. 1. Run the Yarn Through Your Left Fingers

   Pick up the working yarn with your left hand and let it lie across your fingers. Do not close your hand around it.

   Tip: Every knitter routes the yarn a little differently. If this path feels wrong in your hand, try taking it around your ring finger instead.

   

2. 2. Lay the Yarn Across Your Palm and Over Your Index Finger

   Wrap the yarn once around your pinky. Carry it across the palm side of your middle and ring fingers, then up through the gap and over the top of your index finger.

   Tip: Jessica McDonald keeps her three lower fingers curled around the needle while the yarn runs over them.

   

3. 3. Lift Your Left Index Finger to Keep the Yarn Taut

   Raise your index finger up and slightly away from the needle. That opens a short straight run of yarn between the last stitch you made and your fingertip.

   Tip: The yarn should cross your index finger on an angle, from the middle knuckle up to a point below the first knuckle. Laid flat across the fingertip it slides off.

   

4. 4. Insert the Right Needle Into the First Stitch

   Slide the right needle tip into the first stitch on the left needle, front to back, left to right. Same entry as any knit stitch you have made before.

   Tip: Keep that raised index finger behind the right needle tip as you enter the stitch.

   

5. 5. Catch the Yarn With the Right Needle Tip

   Roll your left hand forward. That drops the taut strand across the front of the right needle tip.

   Tip: If you keep missing the strand, your index finger is probably sitting too far left. Bring it closer to the needle tips so the yarn hangs right where the point travels.

   

6. 6. Roll Your Left Hand Back to Pull the Loop Through

   Once the yarn is on the tip, roll your left hand back. The rolling motion secures the strand around the needle and drags it through the old stitch as a new loop.

   Tip: Rolling back too hard yanks the new loop tight and you will fight to get a needle into it next round. Roll only until the loop clears the old stitch.

   

7. 7. Slide the New Stitch Onto the Right Needle

   Push the new loop fully onto the right needle and let the old stitch slip off the left. One stitch done.

   Tip: Nudge your stitches along the left needle every few inches so the next few always sit near the tip. Reaching for a stitch stranded mid-needle breaks the rhythm.

   

8. 8. Knit Rounds of Stockinette on Circular Needles

   Give yourself a project where every stitch is a knit stitch. A hat in the round, or a plain sweater body.

   Tip: Drop a locking stitch marker at the start of the round so you can count without stopping. By the end of one hat the hold stops feeling like a technique.