how-to Knitting for Beginners: Using the Continental Method

Perhaps you are a beginning knitter and want to start by learning the most efficient and effective fundamentals. Or, you may have been knitting for a while, but you knit slowly and wish you could knit faster. Have you ever wondered if you could increase your speed AND your efficiency at the same time? What if there were a book that could teach you in just a few weeks the fundamentals you need to enjoy a lifetime of confidence and satisfaction in your knitting skills? And what if that book used high quality photographs and clear instructions to show you exactly what your hand and finger positioning should be as you go through the steps of a technique? Many knitters in the US and the UK have learned to "throw" their yarn onto their needles with a lot more effort than they need to, resulting in a consistently slower rate of knitting and an inefficient use of the fingers and hands. Strangely enough, this is a holdover from World War II, when the Continental knitting method fell out of favor due to its association with Germany. The Continental method is the most efficient and quickest way to knit, yet many English language knitting books still teach the English or American styles. A glance through many recent books and instructional videos still reveals a widespread lack of knowledge about the most efficient way to manipulate the yarn and needles with your hands and fingers. This book was written to address that gap in knowledge and is divided into six weekly lessons which start with basic fundamentals, and end with intermediate level skills and projects. Lucy W. DeFranco taught beginning knitting lessons for a number of years, and elaborated and expanded upon the lesson plans for those classes to create this book. Ms. DeFranco is an accomplished weaver, fiber artist, and language teacher, and has raised many different kinds of wool-bearing animals. She was also one of the co-founders of The Web*sters, a knitter's and weaver's supply store in Ashland, Oregon.

Lucy was first introduced to knitting as a young child. She began to knit seriously as a teenager. While living and working on sheep farm, she learned how to spin and weave. She subsequently began raising her own sheep, Angora rabbits, and cashmere goats to further explore creating with her own materials. She was one of the founding members of The Web*sters, a store for knitters, spinners and weavers. While there she taught beginning knitting classes using the Continental method. Students were so impressed with the ease and speed of the method, that she received many requests to write a companion book. This book is structured using the lesson plans from the classes she taught. As well as remaining an active fiber artist, she is currently a professor of Spanish at Southern Oregon University.