The Continental Finger

Day Four: A New Skill -- Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day?

I already touched on this a couple of days ago, but I would like to learn how to knit continental style, at least to the point of being able to do so with a secondary color for colorwork projects.

When I chose my first project with colorwork I went in search of a tutorial and printed this one.  It was well illustrated and simple and enough to help me finish my convertible mittens, although I did have to devise a way of holding the yarn in my left hand on my own.  I didn't really settle on a comfortable way to work with my left hand, but I figured I would just need practice. 

Then, with one really emphatic swing of a hammer a few months after finishing the convertible mittens, I made a seemingly permanent change to the way I hold my needles.  It's now just a couple of days shy of a year from when I clobbered my finger tip and although there isn't much of a visible injury there anymore, I still have a lump in that fingertip that can be uncomfortable when I apply pressure to it.  So even now I hold my left needle without using my left index finger.  But since most continental knitters seem to use that finger to guide the yarn, having mine programmed to stay up and out of the way of the needles might be convenient.

I'm not sure what the next step is -- Continental knitting tutorials, videos, a class -- or when I'll make a dedicated effort to improve my version of it.  I'm sure the lazy side of me will continue to hope that random practice with small projects will lead to a sudden epiphany that resolves the difference in tension between right and left hands.  Or the ambitious side might kick in eventually.  What?  It could happen.


(Where's all of that laughing coming from?)