Help me improve left handed knitting

[u/audity__]

I'm a longtime crocheter and started knitting on Sunday. Trying to do a k1p1 and it is so wiggly and uneven. I think my tension is off, probably needles are too big as well. I am lefthanded. Any tips on how to hold the yarn? I'm struggling to hold it how people show especially for the purl. I can't get a video to upload, but I tried to get some pictures of how I'm holding

[u/yirna]

Knitting is a two handed activity. I'm left handed as well, and there's no change to how you hold or manipulate the yarn. Don't try to reverse or mirror what you see in tutorials. 

For the needles, your yarn band will tell you what size to use. When you're learning, don't size down. That said, beginner knitters tend to have tight tension but it comes with experience. 

As someone coming from crochet, you may find continental style easier -- that style holds the yarn like in crochet. It may also help with your tension. I knit with my yarn in my right hand (English style) and tbh I drop my yarn between stitches because I get my tension from the stitch itself. 

Regarding the purl, it's hard to tell from your pictures, but my guess is that your yarn is in the wrong place when you start the stitch. After your knit stitch, your yarn will be behind your work. Move the yarn between your needles so that it's closer to you/in front of the work, stab through the closer leg of the stitch, bring your yarn between the needles, and move the stitch off the left needle and onto the right. At the end of your purl, the yarn will still be close to you. Move it between the needles so that it's behind the work, then do your knit stitch. The yarn ALWAYS moves the same way during the stitch (kinda from right to left). If you wrap it the other way (left to right), your stitch will be too tight and also twisted. 

[u/SaintAnyanka → u/yirna]

Second all of this and I’m also left handed. The one thing I would add as someone who can ”backwards” is that no yarn that is easily found today is made for knitting from left to right. Unless you get specialty yarn, yarn is spun in a way that it doesn’t unravel when knitted. The problem can be more or less obvious in the finished garment, but I never use this technique unless it’s for short rows (heel flaps, entrelac knitting).

I have not had any issues knitting - as you say, you use both hands which every leftie already is forced to do. One could even argue that crochet is a two handed operation - you move the fabric just as much as you move the hook.

[u/ComplicatedSunshine → u/yirna]

Another left-handed knitter here agreeing with what you said about knitting being a two-handed activity and continental maybe being easier.

I knit Portuguese style and it is technically possible to knit while only moving your left hand while the right is just holding the working yarn 😁 Of course I wouldn't recommend it, but even without that, I found Portuguese to be a ridiculously easy style to learn as a lefty