Alpha Hand (or Why You Need to Pay Attention)

Inspired by Knitting in Color Nanette's recent post on the effect of dominance in stranded knitting, I decided to do a little test on how dominance affects MY knitting.

Wait! What IS dominance, you ask. I'm talking about the way that some stitches appear ever so slightly larger than the others. Maybe you've noticed that some of your pattern stitches sort of disappear (this can really be vexing in, say, a Scandinavian lice sweater with individual pattern stitches being used in a large background). Or maybe your knitting seems uneven.

The general wisdom is that, when holding the yarn in both hands, the yarn in the left hand will be dominant. This has nothing to do with your "handedness," by the way. But dominance occurs when you hold both yarns in the right or left hands--it seems to be affected by which yarn comes from under the other. Ann Feitelson in The Art of Fair Isle Knitting  (page 58) looks closely at this effect.

I decided to do some swatching to illustrate how dominance affects my knitting. I hold my yarn in both hands when knitting two colors; in one-color knitting, I hold my yarn in my left hand (Continental or pick style). In general, I have better and tighter tension on the yarn carried in my left hand; my right hand yarn is somewhat sloppy in comparison. Even so, take a look at the startling effects of dominance below.

 

Top half: Dark yarn held in my left hand; light in my right.
Bottom half: Light yarn held in my left hand; dark in my right.
 
The next photo shows the back side of the swatch. Top half: dark yarn held in left hand. Bottom half: light yarn held in left hand. Note the dark line in the middle where is switched hands.

 

And here's the shadow-knitting effect when the swatch is viewed from the side:

 

Knowing this about my knitting, I set up my charts so that I use the dominance effect to my benefit. First, I chart patterns so that the pattern stitches are the X's. Second, I know that any time I see an X in the chart I use my left hand. It doesn't matter that the X indicates a lighter color than the blank square--the X indicates pattern, NOT value (darkness)! I never have to worry about what I was doing when I pick up knitting that has been relegated to a closet time out (I may have other worries about the project, but which hand I was using isn't one of them!).

When we unwittingly ignore the effect of dominance by changing in the middle of a project, the problem is obvious. Sadly, however, it's not always glaring while the knitting is in our hands--the cruel reality is that we might not notice until the garment is blocking. And blocking won't solve the problem (the swatches pictured above were blocked). Elizabeth Zimmermann wrote about trying to wash out a soiled area in one of the socks she knit for her husband--and then realized that the "dirt" was simply an area where she had absentmindedly switched hands.

Nanette correctly notes that not everyone's knitting shows the same dominance effect--my experiment shows that it's worth spending the time to learn about how dominance affects YOUR knitting.

Comments

[Therese]

Great photos. Dominance really matters for me too - unfortunately I can never remember which hand is which and have to swatch every time!

[Colleen]

In my knitting, sometimes it matters and sometimes not. I've swapped on purpose, and been unable to tell, later, that I did. But other patterns it did show. I'd like to know what sort of things show, for me, and which don't, but that will take a lot of swatching!

[Yarndude]

I'l have to give this a try. I hold both colors in my left hand and always thought the yarn on TOP was more dominant, but I've never actually tested it.

[Anne]

This is totally why I always redo charts that are all symbols -- both background and pattern stitches are shown in symbols -- to a simple x for the pattern shade and blank for the background shade -- it's easier to see the pattern this way - and I just make notations as to what yarn is used for the pattern/background for each row.

Your photos are superb examples of holding your yarns consistently throughout a project is so important.

[Christina]

Excellent post, thank you! I'm going to try this, too.

[Marie]

Wow, what a great analysis and swatch. I like your suggestion for charting for keeping track of which yarn goes in which hand. Thanks!

[Caroline]

I think it's Ann F. who explains that the yarn carried below will make the more dominant stitches because those stitches are ever so slightly taller than stitches made with the yarn that is carried above. I carry both yarns in my right hand and I always make sure that the 'pattern' color is the one I carry below.

[Cindy]

Excellent post, and really excellent photographs of the effects. And it's always a good thing for a knitter to get to know the really nitty-gritty details of her own knitting techniques. Nice job, J-. C-

[KnittingInMind]

Another example, I tried out switching hands:
http://knittinginmind.com/2008/02/20/madrona/
(scroll down to 5th image)
Problem was, choosing which one I liked better!

[Ann]

Would you believe this is the reason why my Anne Boleyn sweater has languished? I can't remember which hand was which when I last put it down. I haven't taken up the courage to knit a few inches with the knowledge that there is a 50/50 chance that I will have to unknit those very inches because I guessed wrong. I know. I should just suck it up and *do* it.

And speaking of hand dominance, I was just looking at the Wanderer Sock (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEss10/PATTwanderer.php) in Knitty. And it is really obvious in this photo (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEss10/images/wandererBIGtoes.jpg) that she didn't use the same hand to hold the yellow for the 2 socks.

[Debbie Wilson]

Lucy Neatby also discusses this at length with lots of examples in one of her videos - I think it's Knitting Gems 2. She also talked about it in a class I took with her a couple of years ago. I was shocked to see what a huge difference this makes. She talks about how the yarn that always comes up from below (usually the one I hold in my left hand) makes a slightly longer stitch than the yarn that you are carrying on top (usually the yarn I hold in my right hand). This creates the dominance.

I usually mark up my patterns with notations like "Greens = right, pinks = left" for example. Even if the garment doesn't suffer a timeout, I'm not always 'with it' enough to get the right yarn in the right hand each time I sit down. We won't comment on my mental state :-)

[Linda]

I knitted Lucy Neatby's Paradoxical Mitten pattern using this effect to make the mittens look different but actually be alike. One mitten uses the dark yarn in the dominant postition and the other uses the light yarn in the diminant postition. I loved the effect in that case, but did have some problems in other projects when it happened accidentally.

I think I will make more of an effort to mark my patterns in the future.

[=Tamar]

I find that the "left dominant" rule works even when the two yarns are held in the same hand. The yarn that is on the left side of the pair is brought from below and is dominant.
When returning after a break, tou can tell by looking at the back which one was where; just make a stitch or three and look to see whether you've matched the existing relationship.