more Swaving

The key to ergonomic swaving is the correct needles.  When I first made up swaving needles, I was working from a sample of  a glove needle, and I tried to scale it up to 6" and 8" needles.  It does not work.  The longer needles were not ergonomic  :  (  As I found out!

The sample glove needle had a 90 degree bend in the middle, so as it rotates in the knitting sheath, the tip describes a circle with a radius of 2".  Turns out that is about right for my hands/style.  If I take a 6" sock needle and put a 90 degree bend in the middle, then the tip describes a circle with a radius of 3". That does not work as well for me.

Now, I bend the 6" and 8" needles much more gently so that as they rotate in the knitting sheath their tips describe a circle with a radius of ~ 2" or less -- yes-- the gentile curve that we see in old needles.  About the gentile curve that we see in well used wooden or bamboo needles.

However, swaving needles have a ball tip, with essentially no taper. My swaving needles started as sock needles, but now the tips have been ground round, because that works much better. Note that it is much easier to grind the tips before bending.  : (  My needles are hard to bend. Addis are much easier, but they are plated, so you do not want to go grinding Addi tips.  Some steel DPN are made from tubing, which is likely to crumple when bent.

The needle is "popped" into the stitch, yarn looped, then both hands push down and out in a short, brief, powerful motion. In my style,as the hands are pushed down, the palm or ball of the thumb pushes the upper end of the knitting sheath down about 3/8" of an inch, the knitting sheath pivots, and the working needle levers the yarn through the stitch using the leg of the last stitch as a fulcrum, while at the same time pushing the working stitch open to allow the loop of yarn to come through. This happens suddenly!  The needle with its loop of  yarn pops through, and the small (3/8") motion of the left hand slides the stitch off the needle.

The system allows very large forces to be applied to the knitting. And the system works better when the firmness of the fabric can add to the "spring" that pops the stitch.  At this time, I actually do not know if the system will produce the soft fabrics produced by CYC (http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/weight.html) recommendations. I have been knitting medium (4) yarn on 2.38 mm needles at 7 spi (28 s/4").  I like the fabric. I do have some finer needles, and someday, I will move on to finer yarns.

Swaving is very good for crossed stitches, and it is very good for garter stitch.

/Edited on 7/27/2013  Here I was knitting crossed garter stitch.  Eastern Crossed stitch at a firm gauge is not possible with blunt pricks./

 Likely, one of the reasons for the popularity of crossed stitch fabrics in the old days was that crossed stitched garter results in fabric that has a minimum number of stitches per area, and thus was fast (cheap) to knit.

The process works with firm and very firm fabrics.  The produced fabric is more like high quality machine knit sock fabric than like most modern "hand-knit" fabric. (This may just be me as I like this fabric.)

Stitches tend to lay along the curve of the needles right down to the tip.  Dropping stitches is a much larger problem, but ladders and even tension is less of a problem.

On can knit/purl with swaving needles, but swaving does not happen with straight needles.  One can use the same knitting sheath, but the needles are not really interchangeable for production work.   For me at least, ordinary knitting/purling with a knitting sheath and curved needles is much slower than ordinary knitting/purling with a knitting sheath.  On the other hand knitting/purling with a knitting sheath is much faster than knitting/purling without a knitting sheath.

I have not figured out how to purl with a swaving motion. I have to just purl.

/Edited on 7/27/2013 - I have gotten very good at purling using the swaving motion.  It just took a lot of practice./

Using gansey needles for socks, mittens and sleeves

Here is an advanced technique for knitting sleeves, socks, mittens, and mobius cowels fast and tight. Is this how it really was done? Maybe not, but not many needles have survived and we do not know. This works, it is reasonable, fast, and -- well it takes some pratice, but it is worth it if you are knitting outdoor wear. This file is some 55 megabytes.

By the way, use steel sock needles. Wood needles do not like this technique.
Here is a close up of the finger motion. Note it is very similar to that of the standard gansey technique, but it requires a bit of finess so you do not pull the sock needle out of the socket.

When I get back out to California, I will reshoot all these segments (and few more), put them on a DVD and make the DVDs available.
A Natural Born Knitter with keen eyes has noted that the tips of the commercial steel needles were different. They are. I broke their polish by rubbing them with crocus cloth to make them a bit less slippery.
Some Knitting sheath will work with just about any double pointed knitting. Typically I use longer knitting sheaths with sock needles. Sheaths for gansey needles need to be stronger and made from harder materials than knitting sheaths for wooden, bone, or bamboo. The knitting sheath must fit the intended needles and suit the intended technique.

Edited in Jan 2013 to add, this was a work around.  Today, I swave such items using bent needles. Swaving is faster and easier.  Today, I am sure most gloves,  mittens and socks in the old days were swaved.  This is one case where I wondered down the wrong path.  It worked better than the hand knitting that I was taught, but there are better ways to produce such fabric and objects.

More basics

This is the mouth of my poor old Cornish fish (a knitting sheath that is strong enough to support long steel needles). It had worn until it was oval, and been re-enforced with different glues and epoxy. This morning it got a brass insert. We will see if that helps.


When I started learning about knitting sheaths, I was told that I would need curved gansey needles, which were no longer available. In fact the straight needles gansey needles work just best, but they aquire a curve as they are used over a period of hundreds of hours. Then, I pound them straight again and go back to my knitting. Curved needles were used with knitting sheaths for knitting miniatures, but that is an altogether different technique.

If you see a knitting sheath with brass insert (or a metal knitting sheath or knitting heart) then I know from sad past experience that it was used with metal needles. A knitting sheath with a metal mouth destroys wooden knitting needles.


One can knit socks without a knitting sheath. I could even knit hats, hoods, and scarves without my Goose Wing knitting sheath. I would knit slower, and there would be more stress on the hands and wrists, but I could do it. (Actually, I can make another knitting sheath in an hour with just my pocket knife and a candle.)

Real ganseys are another matter. Real. wind -proof ganseys (sailor's frocks) are another matter altogether. I cannot knit that tight, long enough to finish a gansey without a knitting sheath. Here I am testing the new "brass dentures" of my Cornish Fish, using 18" long US #1 double pointed steel gansey needles. The fish is tucked into my pants waist band over my right hip and the working needle is flexed forward under my right arm.


This is just back and forth swatching rather than real "in the round" knitting.

I am still amazed at how a knitting sheath tames these long needles. Such long needles are unmanageable without a knitting sheath. These gansey needles are even too long to use with a knitting pouch.

However, once you understand the technique, they make knitting a gansey ever so much easier and faster.




Another view showing how the yarn is held in my right hand. It is possible to knit "continental" style using a knitting sheath. Knitting continental style, one can knit even faster, but the fabric is significantly looser, and purling is more difficult.
Since my focus is on warm fabrics, I like to knit tightly, and I like stitches that add texture. Therefore, I usually hold the yarn in my right hand. Still, I knit fairly fast, and I can knit for exteded periods of time without much stress on my hands and wrists.