When I came back to knitting, circa 1999, I was told a lot of things - circular needles are faster, Continental knitting style is faster, pointy needles are faster, gansey needles are faster, and finally, the old professional knitters used knitting sheaths, so knitting sheaths are faster.
I tried very pointy gansey needles in knitting sheaths, and for 12 years that seemed the best combination I could find. It allowed me to knit a good, weatherproof gansey in 9 to 12 days (without damaging my wrists). That seemed faster than anyway, anyone else was knitting weatherproof ganseys.
About 2015, I started experimenting with blunt needles used with knitting sheaths. It works very well. There are a lot of "knacks" that have to be learned. Purling and knitting require very different needle positions. However, needle motions can be very small and use the spring motion of spring steel needles fixed in a knitting sheath. The physics tells me that it can be much faster than "Irish Lever".
The bottom line is that now, with 5 years of practice with blunt needles used with a knitting sheath, I can knit a good (but plain) weatherproof gansey in 4 days. The key elements are good tools for the job, and a high level of skill in knitting that kind of an object. Now, I believe those accounts of professional hand knitters circa 1840, knitting a good gansey in 3 days. Those professional knitters did not use generalized knitting tools. They used knitting tools refined by generations of professional knitters to the production of specific objects. This has been confused by a period when it was fashionable for men to carve token knitting sheaths for their wife or sweetheart. Neither giver or receiver were expert knitters, so the knitting sheaths had more sentimental value than practical utility. As sentimental objects, those less refined knitting sheaths have contaminated and confused our knowlege of good, functional knitting sheaths.
I make good knitting sheaths, I use them, they wear out, and I discard them. An experienced user of knitting sheaths, knows knitting sheaths wear out, so instead of putting a lot of effort embellishing one, one puts the same labor into a series of knitting sheaths, so the loved one always has a highly functional knitting sheath. It is much better to have a working (but plain) knitting sheath, than to have an embellished but worn out knitting sheath with no practical use.
For a long time, it took me 3-days to spin the yarn for a gansey and 10-days to knit that yarn. I thought knitting must always take a lot more manhours than spinning. Now, I have to reevaluate my model of the economics of production of seaman's slops. Spinning and knitting seem to have about equal inputs to a knit object. And, seamen's ganseys were likely less costly than I had thought, and much less costly than thought by the the knitters who assumed it took months to knit a good gansey because it took them months to finish a gansey. I expect many a bright eyed, nimble fingered "herring girl" could knit a very good seaman's gansey in 40-hours, because they had done so for their father, brothers, and cousins.
Since I have been using knitting sheaths, I have said that half the skill is figuring out to how fasten the sheath in place. One issue is that for knitting different kinds of objects, different kinds of needles are used, which need to be supported at different heights. Modern fashions involving belt loops/belts tend to interfere with the proper, secure, and comfortable placement of some knitting sheaths. I no longer wear pants with belt loops when I am knitting.
Also, serious knitting will cause rapid wear in knit sweat pants. Yes, an apron reaching from chest to knees is to serious knitting what gloves are to serious skiing. (Every hobby has its need for gear!) Holes in all my sweat pants have pushed me to wear a leather apron when knitting.
And having discarded a bunch of rather fancy knitting sheaths in the last few months, I am back to very a simple, plain, but very functional knitting sheath held in place with an old, soft, work belt. I have newer and prettier belts, but old and soft works for the current knitting sheath of choice. It is paired with 5 spring steel, flat ended knitting needles.
If you want learn to knit fast, I suggest practice with fine sock yarn and 1.5 mm needles. That develops the small, precise motions that are necessary for fast knitting. And, a little bit of yarn lets you make a lot of stiches, which is a lot of practice, and practice makes perfect. Over the last few months, I was practicing Sheringham style fabrics knit finely from high grist yarns. I found a byproduct was that I knit a lot faster.
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