I mirror knit . Have done for about 16 years since I learned . My gran had attempted to teach me fright handed when I was young but gave up . I knit competently, knitting complex patterns . You may struggle with right handed knitting . Sone left handers can , but if you are like me and very left handed you may find mirror knitting suits you better.
I strongly suggest that you look at the left handed knitting group on Ravelry, the majority of whom mirror knit. It’s called “on the other hand”
if you haven’t joined Ravelry I suggest you do . For a start it’s completely free. Its main use is as a huge database of patterns for knitting and crochet and their yarns (some free, some paid for) but their forums and community groups ( all under the community tab ) are really helpful and this is how you will find the on the other hand group. Find it by searching on the groups tab and find that forum. The people on it are a really helpful bunch but as well as that there are sone links to fantastic mirror knitting videos on YouTube one of the make mirror knitters has done showing lots of techniques ( again all free )
Ravelry and the On the Other Hand group bring home to me all the good about the Internet and restores my faith in humanity !
Some main differences and similarities when you mirror knit
when you use a pattern which is symmetrical ie most patterns you don’t need to do anything different or change anything. This is because when you work a cardigan front for example you will actually make the left side when following the right hand side and vica versa . So you end up with the two you need.
Sweaters are the same. This applies to all written instructions where the garment or thing is symmetrical. I once made an asymmetrical cardigan and found it was the reverse image of the photo in the pattern.
Reading charts is a little different, there are 2 types of decreases- left leaning and right leaning . Usually shown as / or \ in a chart.. As a mirror knitter you will quickly.notice that you do the opposite decrease to that in the key , an SSK when it says 2tog for example. As a militaries knitter , you just have to learn the right stitch using the symbol . So for example when I see a / I always knit an SSK and when I see a \ I knit a 2tog.
when you are following a colour pattern and knitting in either stocking stitch or garter stitch with the chart showing the colour changes , just fools it as you stitch ie front left to fright and back right to left . If you are following written instructions for colour work just follow the pattern. If you are doing stranded fair isle in a loop where you only ever knit the front , it’s even easier , you just follow the written instructions or read the chart left to right as you would when normally reading . (and thinking how all those right handers must be suffering having to read backwards !)
if your chart shows the right side only because the wrong side is purl all stitches for example uou will read a chart as you would this- ite from left to write ( right hangers have to read backwards which is maybe why left handled mirror knitters often love charts and find them easier.
With lace knitting and cables when following written instructions this is where you might need to think a little because just like the charts you have to swap your stitches. So for a cable you do a Cable at back when the instructions say cable at front . Generally I don’t mind if my cables are reversed in an Aran sweater for example but this would matter if you are following a pattern to make an owl for example where the direction will matter.
The same applies to lace knitting when using knitted instructions. You would need to reverse the instructions for decreasing, increasing stays the same with your yarn over .
However to get over this, I never follow written instructions for lace knitting , I always follow a chart instead.
if you have any questions on the above just ask!
Good luck!