With almost 90% of Australians identifying as right-handed, left-handed knitters sometimes get the short end of the stick knitting needle when it comes to tutorials and guides.
But luckily for you, we have a couple of talented left-handed crafters on our team!
We've enlisted the lovely Jessica - who you may know from our phones or shop! - to share some of her wisdom. Jess is a spectacular knitter, with the Winter wardrobe to match...she whips out WIPs with complex colourwork (shown here in the Paul Klee sweater!), cabling and lace like no-one's business!
Here are some of her tips & tricks especially for our lovely lefties.
General tips:
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Learn to read your knitting: everything gets mirror image reversed from a written pattern
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Mentally reverse everything – we do this in daily life anyway!
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Get comfortable with improvising and ripping back. Lots of trial and error.
- When in doubt: look at the pattern photo (on the pattern itself, on the designer's website, or on Ravelry) to see how the designer intended it to look, ie cable crossings.
Directional increases and decreases:
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Directional decreases can be swapped based on the effect you want ( \ , / ) :
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k2tog and ssk (sl1, k1, psso) can be swapped.
- Look at the angle your working needle leans to see which way each dec will lean.
- cdd are symmetrical – slightly different appearance based on the order you layer the centre stitches.
- Circular crown decreases (ie beanies): usually work as written. If a specific design is intended and they’ve used ssk instead of a k2tog, you may need to put the decrease at the beginning of the repeat instead of the end (or vice versa).
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k2tog and ssk (sl1, k1, psso) can be swapped.
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Directional increases :
- M1R and M1L can be swapped
- yo and yfwd are symmetrical, no need to swap
- kfb: no need to change unless you want the purl bump in a specific place. Move the kfb stitch over by 1 to change this.
Cables and Charts:
- If you work cable instructions as written, the crossing directions will be swapped. Sometimes it won’t matter, but if it does affect the appearance of your item, you’ll need to reverse the crossing.
- For example: C4B and C4F can be swapped ( \\ vs // )
- Charted cables can be much easier to visualise as you don’t need to re-think it. Work the crossing as it is drawn.
- Charts (whether cable or colourwork) are read in the direction of your knitting, from LEFT TO RIGHT. If it is a written pattern, you may find it helpful to create your own chart off the written instructions to visualise it.
- Create your chart from RIGHT to LEFT exactly as the written instructions. Then knit it from left to right.
- If you get confused, remember to swap directions of decreases and increases for items that require it, ie garments or lace swap cable crossing directions: // vs \\
Garments and Shaping:
- Neck shaping/v-necks: patterns may start with directions like “work x stitches, turn and work these for left front”. This becomes the right front, and worked as written remembering to reverse the direction of decreases. Vice versa for “right front” instructions: these will become the left front.
- Armhole & shoulder shaping: Casting off multiple sts always happens at beginning of a row. “Dec one stitch at each end of row” will be a k2tog or ssk depending on the desired lean.
- For a smoother decrease line, lean the decrease following the direction of the fabric line.
