The Knitting Knutter

Yes, I am known to some as the Knitting Knutter. I am the crazy person that for months was posting a new knitted project on my Facebook wall, in addition to all the food I was making at the time. I tried to learn to crochet from my mother, but I didn't seem to get the hang of it, and tried to eventually teach myself to knit. I failed horribly! So I gave it up as a lost cause for many years. Then sometime about a year and a half ago, my mother and I were out shopping, and at the time I was going through a bit of stress and my mom, being the mom that she is, figured out that I desperately needed something to occupy my time and thoughts so that I could relax a bit. My mother knows me all too well and knows that if my hands are busy, I'm calm. Which is why I used to needlepoint and why I love to cook. She also knows that I have Carpal Tunnel in my hands from years of typing on the computer for both work and pleasure. We meandered down the craft aisle as I had recently seen something on the Internet about knitting looms and was curious if they could help me finally knit, without being in pain after. We found a lovely set of plastic long looms by Boye and my mother bought it for me along with some yarn as a present. Pardon the pun, but I was hooked! I have since then amassed a collection of not only the plastic long looms, but two sets of round and a beautiful collection of wooden knitting boards from Authentic Knitting Boards.

I highly recommend knitting on a loom, round or long, for anyone that has issues with their hands that make needle knitting or even crocheting painful or difficult. You get a beautiful result with often less time, and quite a bit less effort. I'm not going to go into all the specifics as to how it is done, as I would be typing forever! But I will put some links to pages that will help you with this wonderful and rewarding craft!

If you're curious as to the difference between round and long looms, let me clarify. Round looms are excellent for hats, socks, and tube scarves, including, Magic Scarves, which you can see pictured above on the round loom to the left. You can also make flat pieces where one side is a standard knit stitch, and the other is a purl stitch, this is called flat panel, and is prone to curling. This is where long looms are superior. These allow you to do what is called a double stitch. Both sides of the project will have the same pattern. This is great for scarves, blankets, and washcloths. You can also get a loom from Authentic Knitting Boards that is fully adjustable and designed specifically for making socks. That is the loom on the bottom of the wooden loom photo. I love making my own socks!

All of these projects were made using either plastic round looms (The hat and sock) or long looms. The blue is done in an open rib stitch which is simple and pretty. The white is actually a very thick yarn on a scarf loom that I made for my father to take fishing in the winter. The last photo is of a throw I made my husband while he's overseas using a 38 inch afghan knitting board and alternating colors and stitches. It came out beautiful!

There are of course other tools in my box of tricks, crochet hooks for finishing projects, pom-pom makers and...knitting needles! I haven't given up on them. I actually can knit with needles now and as long as I take breaks, its not too bad. In fact my current project is a rather neat frilly ruffle scarf for my sister. And you can never go wrong with a row counter app on your phone too!

See? A Knitting Knutter if ever there was one! But I love seeing the looks on my friends' and family's faces when they get a gift that I made myself. And I put love in every single stitch...and occasionally curse words...I never said it was perfectly easy! Just easy! Everyone makes mistakes!

Brightest Blessings!

www.authenticknittingboard.com (Great for getting boards, instructional videos, and free patterns!)

Knitting pattern central loom patterns (Free loom patterns, some are pdf files, but great site!]