While blogging week definitely got me back into the swing of posting on a regular basis, it didn't necessarily give me more hours in the day. Funny how that works. I'm still doing a lot of knitting, but doing things like taking pictures and posting them on the internet just seems to take time I don't always have. Anyway, given the fact that I have a couple free hours on this fine Thursday morning, I thought I'd update you on my new best friend, the strickfingerhut.
In a previous post when I mentioned that I was trying to work my stranded knitting with both colors held in my left hand (as opposed to one color in each) Carolyn reminded me of something she had mentioned to me once before: strickfingerhut. Does it sound mysterious? Like some horrifying newfangled torture device? I wasn't so sure, but as it turns out it only costs $3, so I ordered one. It arrived; I immediately busted it out of the box and got to work. I took some pictures to show you the process I went through here, and what I eventually ended up doing.
This is how I would work stranded knitting until now - with one color in each hand. The one in my left hand is the dominant color. (Curious about yarn dominance? Think it sounds kind of sexy? There's a great explanation over here at nonaknits.) This method worked great for me for a long time, but what with all the right hand action it's kind of slow. I'm much more fast with the yarn in my left hand.
When I first broke out the strickfingerhut this is what I tried to do. I wanted to run the strands over the back of my finger, just as I would for regular old continental knitting. Maybe this works for some people, but it didn't for me. I couldn't for the life of me get the white (non-dominant) yarn wrapped through that little metal loop in such a way that it wasn't constantly popping out. I was also trying to wrap the yarns around two different fingers (my pinky and ring fingers, respectively) and the differential feed* issue meant I had to keep stopping and tugging on one strand or the other. (*Differential feed: I noticed this phenomenon while experimenting with the strickfingerhut. You use more of the yarn you're knitting with - as opposed to the one making a strand behind the work - and it's hard to control the tension on two strands independently in the same hand. Then I encountered the phrase differential feed, along with a great explanation here.)
Since this initial method was exceedingly awkward and frustrating, I started googling around about strickfingerhuts. Not surprisingly, not a whole lot comes up. But I did discover that the ever-informative Grumperina posted about this very matter back in 2006. Her solution of the ring with band aids is completely fabulous (Kathy, do you still do this?).
With a little more googling I discovered something that I would have realized much earlier, had I not thrown my strickfingerhut packaging away in a frenzy to get the thing on my hand. There's another way to use the thing, which has been working much better for me:
That is to position the strickfingerhut so the loops are on the bottom of my finger and the strands kind of dangle from it. I keep tension under control by gripping both strands in the palm of my hand. For whatever reason the differential feed issue doesn't bother me as much this way, although I'm not sure why that is the case. And just for the sake of being thorough, I even took a video of me in action with the strickfingerhut.
I couldn't handle the weird silence of the video so I found some creative commons licensed music go to over it. This is part of a track called Milan, by Grapes, which I found here.
At any rate, I hope this post is helpful for those of you who had expressed strickfingerhut curiosity. After all my fiddling around I've finally found a method that works for me, so I think I'll stick with it. (Although I'm going to have to be VERY careful to not leave the strickfingerhut out unattended because it's pretty much the ideal cat toy.) That said, everyone knits differently and that is perfectly okay, so it may or may not be comfortable for everyone.
ETA: Why yes I did paint my nails just for this post. I like to call that color "balls to the wall pink," for obvious reasons. It is fabulously bright.
No, I don’t use the ring with bandaids anymore. With enough practice, I got really good at holding one strand in each hand, and can knit pretty quickly that way. I still have the Strickfingerhuts somewhere… never use them.
That is completely fascinating and bizarre at the same time. What an ingenious little tool!
OMG I need one of those not to help me with two-stranded knitting but to avoid the giant DENT i get in my index finger from the yarn crossing over. It starts to actually hurt!!
JAYSUS EFFING C that is FAST!! Ok, I’m breaking that tiny scandihoovian device out, you’ve convinced me:)
oh, this is totally fascinating. thanks for sharing!
I have one of these but I haven’t tried it because I couldn’t quite figure it out! This is super helpful! I actually don’t carry my yarn when I knit, I drop the yarn and pick it back up again with every stitch, which I know it sounds like that would make things slow, but it’s not bad, EXCEPT when knitting colorwork which it’s a hassle. This might be just the thing.
ooh, this makes me want to try it. but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it as fast as you. that is super fast!
Oh, man, I chucked the packaging for mine, too. The palm-side placement sounds freaking GENIUS, since I was having exactly the same problem! YESSSSSSSS. Can’t wait to try it as soon as I get home.
Ok, that whole palm-side placement thing is probably something I should’ve thought of myself. But I didn’t. I’ve gotta go find my strickfingerhut to apologise for throwing it across the room.
Hmmm, interesting little contraption. I don’t knit continental, do you think I’d still be able to use one of these?
Or would it even matter? You can use this to just feet two yarns in whichever hand is your “yarn holding” hand. Ok, too many comments, not enough logical thinking.
I am a thrower and I tried to use this thing with throwing but it didn’t seem to work very well.
I love this whole post! Very interesting info. I’ll be honest though, I love my one-yarn-in-each-hand technique, and I’m pretty fast. Not switchin’.
very interesting post. i just hold both in my left hand but the differential feed bugs me, so i’ll try one of these gadgets next time. thanks!
I think you should have talked through the entire video. OK now three blue, 1, 2, 3, OK now white, OK now 6 blue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6….
heh.
Absolutely! These things work MUCH better when the loops ride below the finger. You can also see that I use it in the underside position in the pix on String – a result of much trial and error. This is in contrast to the far inferior plastic yarn guide gizmo that’s often sold alongside the wire coil strickfingerhuts. Because the metal strip covering the channels of the plastic gizmo is so weak, it must be worn with the yarns feeding over the top of the finger. Wildly harder to control feed and tension, plus the closed end and inflexible nature of the plastic make the things uncomfortable compared to the wire coil, that (over time) conforms to one’s finger dimensions. Best wishes for project success! -k.
Wow! That looks awesome! I’m pretty good with one strand in each hand, but I think it could go a lot faster with this doohicky. Must investigate.
I am really slow at stranded knitting, not like I’ve done much. I can only hold both yarns in my right hand. This finger tool thingy sounds cool though.
OK–this is seriously fascinating to me. I’ll be ‘pinning’ it and coming back to it later when I start a new colorwork project. Thanks for sharing in such thorough detail!
This is fab, as is your nail polish.
I had one of those but just couldn’t figure it out to save my life. (In fact, I think I mailed it to Bertha…) I find two handed color work so much easier. Also, mitten LOVE.