Knitting Backwards

It occured to me a week ago that I have been knitting backwards for many years. While this hasn't bothered me and in fact I haven't even noticed that I was doing it backwards, I now feel the need to correct my wrongdoings. For all this time I haven't knit anything other than scarves for my family and friends. So by knitting basically rectangles this backwardsness hasn't affected my projects. But recently I was reading a blog from another knitter and they mentioned something about teaching a lefthander to knit was no different than teaching a right hander. So as I read on I realized that I did it backwards. By backwards is that I knit from left to right. Regular knitting knits from right to left. There is a big problem when you read a pattern and have to transcribe everything backwards to make anything other than a rectangle. Bear with me here. So if I am knitting a sweater for example then I would be knitting along and then realize that I have knit it inside out(basically).

So the perfectionist that I am, I am reteaching myself to knit right handed. It is no real big deal but it feels so funny. So as a practice I knit a washcloth. Not a bad project but it is all knits and I get to practice my increases and decreases. So I am knitting along and low and behold I screwed up. The washcloth is knit on the diagonal so instead of my washcloth looking like a square when it is done mine looks like a kite! Yes a kite!. So I put that one down and have now started working on a dishtowel. Yes it is a rectangle. I am using a bit of a pattern with it and making three thin stripes going up the towel. It helps me practice moving from knit to purl and back again.

So the reason for me to switch from left handed backward knitting to right handed knitting was to be able to make sweaters and stuff. But all I have accomplished is making more rectangles and squares. Aggghhhhh.....