Question about Russian knitting
Hi Maryna,
I taught myself Russian knitting a few years ago after I stumbled upon your website. I love that it makes my knitting faster. Most of the time I like to have my knitting done without twisted stitches. When knitting in the round I have no problem knitting through the front leg of the stitch which is sitting on the needle to the right. When I switched to the heel with knitting and purling I noticed my knit stitches were mounted with the leading leg in the back and to prevent twisted stitches I needed to knit them through the back loop. My question is why does this happen and is there a way to prevent it?
Also I noticed that the two colored area of the sock felt nice and thick due to the yarn carrying over but the heel felt a bit thin. Now I am thinking I should have twisted the heel stitches to make them feel thicker and wear better. Your comments are appreciated.
Thanks, Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
When you use this knitting style to work back and forth and want to avoid twisted stitches, knit the knits through the back loop and place the yarn under the tip of the right needle when you purl the purls.
To switch to classic knitting, purl stitches the classic way in a purl row, and then these stitches will be mounted with their right leg on top of the needle, ready to be knitted through the front loop.
If you knitted all stitches through the back loop as you worked the foot part of the sock, you formed twisted stitches. That's why the fabric feels denser. It is a good idea to make twisted stitches when you shape the heel. This will keep the fabric consistent and will make the heel more durable.
Twisted purls are formed in a slightly awkward way in Eastern (Russian) knitting. It is easier to switch to classic knitting when you shape the heel and knit the knits through the back loop and purl the purls through the back loop using the classic knitting style.
Good luck!
In Russian/Eastern style knitting how should I do increases, but mostly decreases like k2tog, ssk, centred decreases?
Hi Irene,
To increase stitches, you can make a yarn over, or knit into the front and back of a stitch, as explained at https://www.10rowsaday.com/eastern-bar-increases-full
Decreasing is trickier. When we knit 2 stitches together the Eastern way, we form a left-slanting decrease, not a right-slanting one. So we need to remember to knit 2 together when a pattern tells us to do an SSK decrease, and to do an SSK when the pattern tells us to knit 2 together.
There are more details about this knitting style in the Eastern Knitting course. As a club member, you can read and watch all course materials at https://www.10rowsaday.com/eastern-knitting-club
Happy knitting!
Maryna