New Tricks

The 2013 Finger Lakes Fiber Festival was the weekend of September 21st and 22nd. It was an amazing weekend - I expanded my stash!

Yarn!

Fiber!

Pretty ceramic buttons!

But not only was the festival amazing because of the great stuff you can buy there, but because the Festival was lucky enough to host Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/). I was even more lucky because I had the opportunity to take two workshops with the Harlot - Grok the Sock and Knitting for Speed and Efficiency.

First, I am going to tackle discussing my experience at the second of the two workshops I took - Knitting for Speed and Efficiency. Like perhaps many knitters, I had thought there were two ways to knit - picking (also known as Continental) and throwing (also known as English or American). I had never heard of a third option - Lever. The technique involves holding one needle against your body, relieving your right hand of the obligation to support the needle AND work the yarn. Instead, your left hand brings the left needle to the right needle while your right hand poises itself along the right needle, without holding it, and pivots to wrap the yarn around the needle. You can see a video of the technique on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kArQ2jpaKw. A variation on the technique can also be used for double-pointed needles and circular needles, where the needle is instead balanced between your thumb and index finger on your right hand, similar to a pencil grip.

Its quite an interesting method. It certainly has efficiency on its side. During the workshop, we saw an interesting video of a speed knitting contest. The two fastest on the panel included a picker and a lever knitter. The picker's hands looked almost frenzied, while the lever knitter looked like she was barely moving. You can see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykFdl7qi6FU. 

Despite this initial, and very convincing, introduction to the method, the Harlot warned us that the stages of change are much like the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance, and (30 days later) change. 

I began with what I would categorize as an initial stage of admiration. Sitting there, I could admire the efficiency and speed of the method, and actually found it to be quite pretty and elegant. I'm not certain I ever went through denial... I instead jumped straight after admiration to anger. I have never knit so tight in my life. I could not get my stitches to move. And it felt so SLOW... Where's the speed and efficiency??? 

Even now, a week later, I think, to a certain degree, I am in the bargaining stage. I accept that the method has efficiencies, but I am not entirely convinced that it will ultimately be more efficient for me. At the same time, another part of me accepts that if I truly ever want to be as proficient a knitter as I would like to be, I need to learn this method and increase my speed.

Right now, I am 7 days into learning this new method. To consider myself as having successfully learned this method, I think it is fair to say that after 30 days, I should be approximately as fast at this as I am at my usual technique (left-handed throwing) - or 29 stitches per minute. Timing myself over a three minute period to get an average, I currently am at 12 stitches per minute using the lever knitting method. I am considering this a fairly low bar as, for example, the knitter in the speed knitting contest averaged 122 stitches per minute and Pearl-McPhee said she cruises along at about 70 stitches per minute. 

I am therefore planning to document my progress in learning this new method, and see if I ever can fully embrace change. I feel the need to document this, if for no other reason then it will make me hold myself accountable. I'll check in next week.