Last night I taught the first Beginning Knitting class at my LYS – 10 students, 2 of whom were left-handed. What a challenge and what fun it was. Afterwards I came home and taught my self to knit left handed. Having been a keyboard player most of my life, I think my finger and hand independence level is pretty high, and while my little left-handed swatch took longer than normal to work, the tension is not perfect but not bad – perhaps a little looser than is my usual. I’m sure it would improve with practice.
To knit the swatch of Stockinette stitch below, here’s what I did:
- Hold needle with CO row in right hand.
- Hold empty needle and working yarn in left hand.
- Row 1: To knit: insert left needle into front leg of st, right to left, front to back, and wrap counterclockwise.
- Row 2: To purl – insert left needle into back leg of st, back to front, right left, and wrap clockwise.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who finds this helpful or in error. This was experimental and is only my solution. The swatch doesn’t have any twisted stitches as you can see.
Stockinette Stitch
Victoria's Weblog 
I am left-handed, but I don’t knit that way. I taught myself to knit continental (holding the working yarn in my left hand), and find that to be very efficient.
By: pokey13 on October 9, 2008
at 7:38 pm
Bravo! Then you are knitting the way right-handers who knit in the Continental way do. Actually, I knit in both English and Continental (German) ways, particularly when working Fair Isle, but some left-handers are very uncomfortable working that way.
By: vjicha on October 9, 2008
at 7:58 pm