Being Disabled and Knitting Tutorials

When I learned to knit and even today, I noticed that knitting tutorials are not adapted for disabled people. That was wicked frustrating to me because I not only had to learn the skill but I also had to adapt it so I could knit. I bet you are thinking, what do you mean? I see you knit on social media all the time! Let me take a moment and explain what I mean.

Cast On Methods

When I learned how to knit, my sister taught me the loop around the thumb method because that is the method she learned in Girl Scouts. I liked that method because it allowed me to knit and that was my end goal. A few years later, I had to learn the long tail cast on method, and I thought it was so difficult. All the tutorials I found had you move both hands at once. I have Cerebral Palsy (CP) on my left side, I cannot simultaneously move both hands for different things. I started to feel like I could not broaden my knitting horizon. One day, I realized how I could make the long tail cast on work. First, I take a knitting needle and place it in my left hand. Second, I make a slingshot with my right thumb and pointer finger and the tails are secured by my ring and pinky fingers. The last step, I move my thumb and pointer finger to twist the yarn to create stitches. This method has become my go to method because the edge it creates looks so nice and neat. As the years go by and the more, I knit, the more things I want to learn. When I came across the cable cast on, I was excited because it looked like a braided edge that polishes off the project. The first thing you do is start with a slip knot and place it on the left knitting needle. Then you knit into the slip knot, twist the new stitch, and place it on the needle with the slip knot. After, you knit in between the stitches and line them up on the left needle. Personally, I thought that was easy enough, but I do not know what did not connect in my brain. When I tried this method, I did not get the pretty little braid. I will try it again and hopefully will be more successful than before. At this point, I promised myself to try to learn all the cast on methods because you never know when you may need to use them. That is the point it all went downhill for me. I tried the provisional cast on, which is more of a temporary cast on. What you need to do is crochet a chain and then pick up stitches onto your knitting needle. Due to my CP, I could not hold the chain and the knitting needle. The last cast on I am going to talk about is German Twisted cast on, this method was difficult because it requires a lot of fine motor skills from my left hand. If you understand Cerebral Palsy, you will understand that fine motor skills are not one is forte. You would think in 2024, there would be tons of knitting tutorials adapted from disabled people.

 Knitting Techniques

The way one knits is a bit controversial because knitters think their way of knitting is the best way to knit. That is not true at all and do not let the internet make you insecure of your skills! There are a ton of ways to knit, continental (throwing), English (flicking), Portuguese style (the working yarn goes around your neck to name a few. When I first learned, I learned continental style, but it took me forever to finish a project because you must drop the working yarn to push the stitches to the edge then pick it back up and wrap it around the needle. Exhausting, isn’t it? So, I taught myself English style. Okay, technically, it is not English because the working yarn is held in the left hand. I cannot hold the working yarn in my left hand at the tension I like. So, I do an English style-esque when I knit. I bet, you are thinking, what does that mean? How I knit today is I push the stitches to the edge of the knitting needle then I swiftly knit through the stitches like water in the breeze. One time I tried the Portuguese style of knitting because I did not like my tension. I will be honest, I did not like this style of knitting because it took so long to get through a row. On top of that, my tension was everywhere; too tight and too loose.

I hope you got something out of this article, and I hope you return for more articles like this one! This topic is always on my mind because knitting tutorials are not geared for the disabled.