Throwing vs Picking

I am a thrower.  Not only am I a thrower, I'm what I've termed a "griper."  I don't weave my yarn neatly through my fingers and throw it over my needles.  I hold my yarn in the most unattractive fashion and make many, many movements for each stitch.  My mother has told me that when teaching me to knit, she tried to have me hold the yarn all nice and neat, but I couldn't do it.  I'm lacking a certain manual dexterity.  My grade school teachers always used to put those little rubber triangles on my pencils to get me to hold them in the proper fashion.  I prefered to clutch the pencil as if holding on for dear life.  And don't even get me started on chopsticks.   I usually end up sheepishly asking for a fork.

But the siren song of picking always calls out to me.  Faster! Less movement! Less wrist strain!

All my local yarn stores offer "picking for throwers" classes.  You never see "throwing for pickers." 

And it makes sense.  Fewer movements means less time spent making those movements which results in more stitches in the same amount of time.

So over the weekend I decided to put the issue to rest.  I used my Vogue Knits (the big one that I'm too lazy to link too) to see how I liked picking.  Could I do it?  What would my stitches look like? Would it be so fast I'd start amazing all of you with my sweaters I finish in a week? 

The answer is most resoundingly no.

Actually, manually, I was able to make the motions of picking.  I was able to control the tension of the yarn with my index finger.  I even enjoyed the rhythm of the motions.  But the stitches.  Oh, the stitches.  They looked so bad.  Check out how ugly this is.

The picking stitches tended to be lopsided.  One side would be way longer and the stitch coming out of it didn't sit centrally within the stitch.  And there was no order to this.  It happened randomly on both the knit and the purl rows.

For all my bemoaning, my throwing is so neat and lovely.  Even with all my awkwardness, I get some damn fine knitting out of it.  I sort of feel like this is some sort of Act of God.  I have no control over it.  I've been given the gift of even knitting and I feel blessed by this.  See?

Well, there are a few wonky stitches in that swatch, but I blame the circular needles.  For some reason, when I knit on circs, a row here and there looks a little wonky.  Once the knitting is washed, this goes away and all my stitches are even and symmetrical.  And I nearly always get both row and stitch gauge on the recommended needle size.  Again, I have nothing to do with this.  Gift from God.

I decided to take it one step further and try ribbing.  I've never been happy with my ribbing.  The knit stitch right before the purls always gets a little big.  I have been able to compensate by tugging the yarn quite tight.  But I have a  friend who picks and, oh, how neat her ribbing is!  I'm jealous.  But as bad as I thought my ribbing was as a thrower

doesn't even compare to just how bad my rib as a picker looks:

I didn't think rib could be so ugly.

So the lessoned learned was not to look a gift horse in the mouth.  I knit beautifully and I'm not going to yearn after faster! less movement! any more.  I generally don't get a lot of wrist strain and if I make an effort to spend less time futzing around looking at what I'm doing, getting up to get a drink, turn off/on the heater or any of the myriad of distractions I tend to have, I'll be a much faster knitter. 

Comments

[Christina]

I've been trying to pick so I could try two-handed colorwork. My stitches looked wonky too. But I've noticed as I practice more, my tension is evening out. I just don't like it, though, just on principle. I like knitting slowly, its more meditative. At least that's what I'm sticking to. :)

[Stephanie]

I'm a continental knitter, which makes me a picker (or at least it does in my mind). I think it all has to do with what you learn and get used to and depends on your tension. But, I agree that if you like the knitting you're getting, stick with it. No one way is better than another (despite what some people might try to convince me of). Fun experiment - I ought to try it and see what happens.

[grumperina]

Purly, I could have written that post, just reverse all uses of throwing versus picking. I just accept it as is - I cannot throw, my knitting is fine right now, and that's that. You keep on throwin' like there's no tomorrow!

[gleek]

in the beginning, my mom tried to teach me to knit and i could not get the hang of it! she was teaching me to throw with my right hand which i found very frustrating. so i taught myself to knit continental but i do this weird thing of actually using my left index finger to half-pick half-throw the yarn over the needle! just goes to show you that everyone is different. you gotta stick with what works for you.

[Sara]

It took me a year, but I've been making a slow transition to continental, and I'm genuinely faster. I started on stuff I was going to felt, so tension problems wouldn't affect the final outcome. I'm not as good knitting without looking in continental, but I figure that'll come with more practice, too.

Happily, a good warm soak and block will take care of a lot of inconsistent stitches. For me, it's been worth it to switch.

[marichan]

Almost like Grumperina, I could have written this - as is!!! I am such a thrower. I've tried continental and combined but my knitting looked worse than your knitting. I don't have as much time to knit anymore so I don't worry about it - who has the time to learn a new technique when I just have to get through the stash? Throw on!

[Siow Chin]

I'm a thrower too and I love to throw. Tried picking for two-colour knitting and it works fine for the knit stitch but I just could pick a purl. I spent twice or even three times more effort to pick a purl than to throw a purl.

[handknit168]

Don't stop knitting your green lace wrap, it is beautiful and I am planning to knit such lace.

[yahaira]

We had the same realization this weekend. I've been secretly trying out continental, and at first it was ugly, but now Im getting the hang of it. Until you throw in purls! Then all hell breaks loose. I figure if I speed up on the knit side, stay the same in purls, and stop looking online when I want to be knitting, my knitting speed should improve by umm 1%

[Sockbug]

The weird thing for me is when I learned to knit from that little "Learn How Book", I was a thrower. I didn't knit much and soon forgot how...when I picked it back up again, I became a picker. You've read me grousing about my ribbing before, too. All we can do is strive to improve, right?

[Heather]

Wow..a woman after my own heart. I too am a thrower and have always felt a tad bit inadequate around other pickers, like throwing wasn't good enough. I like to throw dammit and I knit fast enough. Maybe one day I'll try to jump on the picking band wagon again but for now. Throwers unite!

[Angela]

I was a thrower for a good year and then switched slowly. It doesn't happen overnight and the purling defintely took me a lot longer to "master" than knitting. But like everyone said, what works for you is what works for you!

[Saleknitter]

I'm a thrower and PROUD of it!! I just learned how to make socks and have used the opportunity to pick. I like it but only with socks. Perhaps the pressure for the handknit to "look great" is lessened because I know the sock will be under some pants. It's a great opportunity to practice picking. But when it comes time to purl, I'm a thrower all the way. And when I get tired of the combined method, I switch back to throwing. Moral of the story...you do what is comfortable and enjoyable. Have fun...with no apologies!

[carrie m]

oh my goodness, i had to use those weird triangles on my pencils too! and you know what? they never worked. i just kept using a death grip. and i still hold my pens with what my 9th grade bio called "the carrie clutch."

but anyway. i didn't even realize when i taught myself to knit that i was teaching myself to be a picker. that's how little i knew. so i was astonished the first time i saw a thrower. i simply don't understand it! but my feeling is, whatever works.

[Kira]

Its very interesting this throwing and picking, and as many have said already I think that its the one that you don't do that is tricky. I pick (is that the left handed way?) because my Granny was Russian and taught me that way. I couldn't work out how to throw for years. Now I have to because I am knitting Fair Isle, but despite being right handed and everything I cannot control yarn with my right hand... my stitches when I throw look just like yours when you pick!

[Kathy]

What did your knitting look like when you first learned? I'd imagine it looked pretty lousy, at least for a while until you got the hang of it. Same with going between throwing and picking - there's a learning curve not because you are incapable of picking, but because it's new to you.

In the end, if however you're knitting now works for you and you're happy, why change things? If you aren't content, keep plugging away until you're comfortable and things start to be even.

[Pigwotknits]

I'm a thrower and a very inefficient one at that. Like you, I can't get myself to do the winding yarn round your fingers thing so each stitch takes several movements. Despite that, I'm quicker than my mum, who throws 'properly'. Her knitting is always tighter than mine and I tend to knit slightly to tight anyway, so I think if I did learn to do it the official way, I'd have terrible problems with tension. I say it, do it the way that works for you. There are advantages in having more than one style up your sleeve though.

[Jo]

I am a picker and I think, for only having learned to knit last year, reasonably fast. But I have issues that I am SURE would not be there if I could even begin to figure out how to throw. My tension is fairly even but the motion of picking stretches each stitch which then gets tightened up as you move onto the next and so on. In the round this is not a problem at all, flat the edge stitches are sloppy, not because I didn't keep the first stitch tight but because the last stitch of the row below has been made loose by effectively moving a little excess yarn all the way along the row as you knit. This also makes it harder to avoid ladders on DPNs. On DPNS for me the trick is not in knitting tightly in the current row but stretching the hell out of the first two or three stitches I am knitting into on each needle to pull over the slack from the previous needle. I really do think that throwing would fix these problems but it would no doubt introduce new problems too and I just cannot get my head around how one even begins to do it (without dropping yarn between every stitch).

[Colleen]

I had to reteach myself picking last year. It took a few days to get really good at it (and I wondered why I bothered) but my knitting tightened up, and my purl stitches don't take an age-and-a-half anymore. But, as long as what you do works for you (um, the KNITTER!) then keep on keepin' on.

[Jeannine]

What a lovely post to read. I've always felt like my knitting is really inefficient and slow, but I love the results. I've also wondered if my hands would be less sore if I learned how to knit "properly." Maybe it's just time to let it go and just knit the way I knit. If only I could transfer that sentiment to other areas of my life...

[Diana]

I am a thrower too.. and want to make this transition to continental style. someday. I admire your dedication to trying it out :-)

[Julie H.]

I've tried picking, and my self-taught hands are very stubbornly throwers. My tension goes straight into the trash when picking, especially on the purling, and I have to re-wrap the yarn around my fingers several times just to hold it right. So far, not worth it, especially when I have so much Christmas knitting to get done. Maybe I'll try Continental again after the holidays. Maybe not.

[alice]

I've been knitting Continental for decades (long before I knew what it was called!). Recently, I've attempted right-handed knitting. The knitting works, for a few stitches at a time, but there's no flow to it. And, as far as I can tell, right-handed (throwing) purl stitches are impossible!

[Beth S.]

I absolutely believe that technique is a purely personal thing, and if yours works for you, you shouldn't worry about whether you're doing it the "right" way. I knit in a very idiosyncratic manner myself (I'm a self-taught thrower, and my purl stitches actually involve my thumb) but I like the end result well enough.

[Meg]

Hi Purly - I picked up a tip from Nona about the making the ribbing look less saggy. Here's a link to it: http://nonaknits.typepad.com/nonaknits/2004/12/a_bit_of_braggi.html
I've tried picking too...I just don't have the patience required to practice it enough to overcome the awkwardness of it!