The Knitting Fiend

I bet you are just salivating in anticipation of learning how to knit stockinette using the “Eastern Crossed Method”! Ok. You’re not! Tough. I need this endless series of articles so I can link back later.

Those who slogged through Part I of “Knitting Ad Naseum” remember that “Western Uncrossed Knitting” results in untwisted stitches similar to what you could create on a knitting machine. In contrast, “Eastern Crossed Knitting” results in twisted stitches do not look like those knit by machine.

The first time I saw Eastern Crossed Knitting was when a friend from Pakistan wore a hand knit vest to the cafeteria at school. I squinted and said: “Who knit that for you?” He answered “My mother, it’s just an ordinary vest. why do you ask?” I exclaimed “The stitches are twisted!” “Is that bad?”, he asked. “No, I want to learn how to do that. It looks neat!”

It turns out to be easy to do, and similar appearances can be obtained two different ways. These are: Western Crossed, which is described in Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of knitting, and Eastern Crossed, which is, evidently, traditionally used in Arabia. I say “evidently” because I have not delved into historical use at all. For all I know, this is a complete myth and the identification of certain types of crossed knitting as “Eastern” was a mistake made by archeologists. (More later).

However, if the lore in knitting references and on web pages is correct, likely as not, my Pakistani friend’s mother knit using what we call the “Eastern Crossed” style of knitting, which is illustrated in the center two rows of knitting in the swatch to the left.

House of Barra describes Eastern Crossed, or Oriental, Knitting this way:

Crossed (Eastern) knitting. The left part of the stitch crosses over the right.

Note, left over right as opposed to right over left. If you examine the swatch to the left, you will see the left leg of each stitch crosses over the right leg in the two center rows. That’s “Eastern Crossed”.

(Aside: You can read about the Dura-Europas knitting find in the House of Barra article. However, evidently, it turns out the fabric pictured there is not knit. It’s made using “nalbinding”, as discussed in this article, which also does discuss some knitting archeology. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of any of it. I just know how to make stitches not twist, twist left or twist right!)

Now I’ll discuss how to knit using the Eastern Crossed Style.

Recall my discussion of how the yarn sits on the needle. When knitting Eastern Crossed style, the left leg lies in front of the needle and the right leg lies behind it. This is illustrated in the right hand column of the table below.

How does the yarn sit on the needle?

Western.

Eastern.

Also remember in “part I”, I mentioned the way the stitch sits on the needle is dictated by the way you yarn over. You might suspect since the yarn is sits the differently in Western and Eastern methods, you also wrap differently. Once again, I’ll illustrate how we yarn over after showing how to insert the needle.

Eastern Crossed Knit

Insert needle tip, twists stitch.

Yarn over: over, to front, below, to back

To knit the stitch, place the right needle tip just to the left side of the right leg of the stitch. Insert through the hole. Notice that, despite the fact that the instruction for inserting the tip is exactly as for Western Uncrossed knitting, the stitch will be twisted as illustrated above and to the left. This happens because the stitch is sitting differently.

Next, yarn over by taking the yarn over the top of the needle, to the front, below the needle then to the back; the direction is illustrated in the photo above and to the right. Note this way of wrapping opposite that used when knitting Western. When you wrap this way, the new stitch formed will sit Eastern style on the needle .

Eastern Crossed Purl

Insert Tip.

Yarn over: under, behind, over, to front.

Even though you have turned the work, the stitches still sit “Eastern”, with the left leg in front of the stitch and the right leg behind the stitch. To purl, insert the tip of the needle from right to left through the right leg. The stitch will cross, but it is very difficult to see this when purling. The stitch will appear as illustrated above and to the left.

Now, yarn over by taking the work under then behind the needle, then over and in front of the needle as show above and to the right. Then draw the loop through to purl. If you turn the work and examine it on the knit side, you will see the stitch twists.

Well, that’s enough about the Eastern Cross Style for now. Oh, except for one thing. Have you noticed that when you examine “normal” (aka Western Uncrossed) knitting upside down, it looks exactly as it does examined right side up. Stockinette knit Eastern Cross Style looks different upside down and right side up!

Knit up two rows and have a look.