When you purl using the Continental
method, you not only hold the yarn
and control tension with your left hand
but also hold the yarn in front of the
needles, as for the English method.
The Continental method makes it
easier to move the yarn from the front
of the needles to the back of the needles
in the same row. When you begin to
mix knitting and purling in the same
row, as for ribbing or other combination
stitches, you really see the difference.
1 Hold the needle with the cast-on stitches on it in your left hand and hold the
working (empty) needle in your right hand, with the working yarn wound
around the fingers of your left hand.
Purl: Continental Method.
2 Holding the yarn in front of both needles, insert the right needle from back
to front (that is, from right to left) into the first stitch on the left needle.
The needles will form an X, with the right needle in front of the left needle.
How to Purl Using the Continental Method