What Is Portuguese Knitting?
Paula, also known as MIAMAUS on the online knitting community Ravelry, graciously offered me the use of this photo of her knitting Portuguese style.
Paula was born in Portugal and all her family still lives there. She resides in Germany.
Thanks Paula!
Portuguese knitting is a technique where the working yarn is tensioned either around the neck, or through a knitting pin worn on the left shoulder. This allows the knitter to use a simple thumb movement to place the yarn. The placement of the yarn through the pin may make it appear to be a more complex method but it is really quite simple. My favorite thing about knitting this way is that it has proven to be more ergonomic for me, allowing for pain free knitting for my aching wrists, and it has given me more knitting speed.
Andrea Wong, well known advocate and teacher of this technique, travels the Country helping a whole new generation of knitters discover this age old and effective method of Portuguese knitting.
Andrea says...
This style is also popular in Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Peru. A Portuguese lady who immigrated to Brazil taught my mother how to knit this way in 1955 and using the knitting pin. My mother, in turn, taught me how to knit this way when I was only seven years old.
My mother taught it to me and I have two books from 1960´s inherited where it is explained... (a scan of the book is included below)
Funny thing is you do not see that they use the yarn around their neck or a needle anywhere. Need to dig thru the explanations if it is written there.
Stoneybrooke says...
I learned about it from a knitting group near Dayton, Ohio. I picked up Andrea Wong's dvd and in no time I was knitting Portuguese style. From www.andreawongknits.com, you may purchase instuctional DVD's, knitting pins and a book on the subject. I encourage you to take advantage of these resources. It will make learning the technique so much easier.
My one bit of advice in learning to knit this way is this... practice, practice, practice and in no time it will become second nature to you!
After about 6 months of using Andrea's knitting pin, I decided that I would love to have a decorative and functional knitting pin that doesn't require putting a hole in my shirt.
You may now purchase my magnetic Stoneybrooke Cottage vintage style knitting pins directly from Andrea Wong.
