Portuguese Knitting at the Whiners Retreat

"Whiner's Retreat?," you ask, "What is that?" Well, in March, yes almost two months ago, my favorite spinning retreat took place in Tyler, TX. Several of us in the Texas Twisters spinning group didn't get to attend this year. We weren't very happy about it either, we kept whining at spinning about not getting to go. Liz decided to host us at her home for the day on the Saturday of the weekend, so we could continue to whine. Instead we had a great time. We had lemon bars, cinnamon crumb cake, and coffee! Oh, yeah, we did eat some nutritious food too.


One of the things that we did, was to watch a DVD on Portuguese Knitting. It is an intriguing way to knit. Click on the link and you can see how it is done. The movements of your hands and wrists are different than in continental or American/English style of knitting. You use your left thumb to pass the yarn around the right hand needle. Once you get the process down and practiced it is a very quick way to knit. You don't have to tension the yarn through your fingers, the pin does that.



One option is to have a pin to put your yarn through, and that pin is what tensions your yarn. Notice in picture at top and in the second picture. You are seeing my hands in the top and Laurie is knitting in the second. If you don't have a pin that is OK, we didn't either. We used safety pins. But, you can also put the yarn around the back of your neck for tensioning.



Laurie caught on quickly to this, but I was a little slower. Actually, I felt like a knittingly challenged person that day! AND I have been knitting for about 48 years. I would think I had it down, but infact, I was purling and not knitting! I would try again and end up purling. I think if I had a real teacher there, I would've flunked the class or at least been given a dunce cap. :) Or maybe received an A for effort. It was a lot of fun, trying something new, and I will succeed in Portuguese Knitting, one day.


Out of our group of 6, only Laurie and I ventured into the world of Portuguese knitting that day. The others watched, laughed with us(about my confusion), and spun yarn.

Liz has Whippets. They are great dogs and they were at our retreat. If you notice, the minute we got up they took back their territory! :)

We decided, after all, that we had a great time and want to have another Saturday spin day. However, we all hope to be able to return to our favorite retreat next March. Yes, we still whine about missing Wildflower Retreat.