Five or six years ago, I started learning continental-style knitting, where the yarn is held in the hand that holds the needle that is being knitted from. It only works for the knit stitch, not for purl (don't ask me what they do on the Continent for purling), but it is much more efficient than the way that is usually taught (which I also taught myself at that time, having had up until then a let-go-of-the-needle-and-move-the-whole-hand-around technique; effective but very slow).
I am now working on a lap blanket, all in garter stitch (knit stitch only), and it is a good project for practicing my continental knitting. Now I have acquired some muscle memory in making the stitch. I've also been working on moving more efficiently from one stitch and the next, and from one row to the next.
With those skills, I can now knit more than twice as fast as I could just a few years ago, and probably more like three times the speed that I was knitting at ten years ago. It is very exciting to see my blanket being completed so quickly. And when I estimate the dwindling number of years that I have left to knit in, I think I'm going to need that ability.
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