I've been try out some knitting with my daughter before she goes back to school. I came across a post on http://www.renaissancefestival.com/ about finger weaving (I'll post some of our finger weaving soon). Anyway, since then, we've been doing a lot of experimenting with loom knitting. Being a thrifty person, I was playing around with things arounds our house like combs and pencils. Finally, I've come up with a great new adjustable loom for knitting.
Here is Jeudi modeling her new hat while displaying our loom. I ran out at 32 pens. Have to wait to make a hat for myself until I can get more.
Makes a great duck beak, too!!
I used BIC stick pens, small rubber bands, and beads. It separates anywhere along the pegs and can be laid flat. When ever I need, I can add/subtract pegs really easily. No extra looms to carry or fancy tools necessary. I love it because I can just roll it up yarn attached and all and stuff it in a bag for long car rides.
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Before the adjustable BIC loom, I had tried a pencil loom. I tried tying string to each pencil, but it took too long to put together and I couldn't make it smaller as easy. I made 2 hat/scarf sets for Jeudi's dolls.
ACH that is awesome! I spent like 22 bucks back when I got my Knifty Knitter set! And I find that it's bulky and hard to get the results I want! I think I'm just going to make one of those!!!
ReplyDeletewow that is amazing!!!!!! i am definitely going to try it out
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!! I just bought a board too!! Man! Well at least I can make some round looms now and not buy those:) Just one question, how does the round looms work? I mean, the KK looms are a solid circle that doesn't move, so how do you knit with these, since they aren't glued or stuck to a base? I think that I will try one and maybe poke some holes through the top of a few oatmeal can lids that are glued together , then cut the middle out to make a small loom, think that will work??
ReplyDeleteHi Becky! Thanks for commenting. I knit on my adjustable loom the same way you would on the KK loom. Having a rigid circular frame really isn't necessary. As long as the peg where you knit off is rigid to suppport the loops, you just hold on to the loom near the "active" peg and move you hand as needed. Furthermore, the rubberbands and spacers keep the distance between the stitches from collapsing together, which would cause your tension to be too tight between stitches. Knitting isn't stiff. It stretches and changes shape a great deal, so it doesn't require a solid base to work from. As long as the pegs are spaced evenly and don't slide around freely when you are knitting, the stitches won't distort. You'll find that the oatmeal can lid won't be needed. :) If you do need some structure, you could add a wooded ruler, paint stick or other straight nonbendable object to the sides of your loom as I did for my Unity Scarf loom. However, I only did this so that I could "double knit".
ReplyDeleteHave fun experimenting!
Mieljolie
I love that! but how do you make socks? pleas make a tortial on it.
ReplyDeleteTo make a sock, you increase to form the heel shape and decrease it back to its original size to finish.
ReplyDeleteYou could just start with a loom has enough pegs for the widest width of the heel and fold/connect the pegs on the loom at the location of the desired width of the tube portion to keep the spacing. Then just move the connection over adding/removing active pegs to form the heel. Leaving the loom intact will make it faster to increase/decrease.
I'll try to find some time to get a tute on making socks and gloves. I must apologize for letting my other projects gets the better portion of my spare time lately. I do intend to return to loom knitting when it's fits into my schedule.
Mieljolie
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know, the teenage girls of my church needed several hat looms to make hats for the maternity ward at our local hospital. I made several looms using your idea here, and the girls love them because they fold up and are easy to carry round.
The one modification I made was to cut the pens in half using a pvc pipe cutter so I could make double the looms. I sanded the cuts for a softened edge using a cardboard fingernail file, much easier to hold than a folded piece of sand paper.
Oh, and I took out the ink dispensers first, of course. ;)
That's wonderful, Anon! So glad they liked them! And, YAY for you making them better! You could also try melting the plastic ends with a lighter or candle. That may also smooth any sharp edges that could snag yarn.
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