Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Have you tried and failed at knitting? Try loom knitting instead

Have you tried and failed at knitting with needles?

I did, many times. I don't know if it was my left handedness or what that made me completely unable to learn knitting by looking at photos or drawings in books or on websites.  I tried at least a dozen times, using as many different books and sets of instructions as I could, but I never succeeded in making anything but a mess.

My travels through fabric stores always included a wistful look at the yarns accompanied with a big sigh. It was very disheartening to want to work with yarn but to not be able to teach myself to use it.

Then the beautiful day dawned when I found out about Knifty Knitter looms.



I wondered if this might be a way for me to finally learn to knit. I thought about it too long (as I am prone to do), and finally decided it had to be easier to wrap those pegs than it was for me to understand what to do with the needles and yarn. I knew I could return them if I couldn't work them, but I had to give it a try.

Well, Glory Day it was when my new looms arrived, because that was the day I became a knitter. Knitting on these looms is so easy that a child could do it as play. I call them hand knitting machines, because your project feeds through the bottom, evenly and quickly, like something professionally made.

The day after I first put my hands on my knifty knitters, I had already worked through three gorgeous skeins of yarn and made myself a roomy new purse.


It's certainly not perfect, and I have since learned a better way to sew on straps.  But it is a functional bag which is now my favorite purse.  I get compliments on this almost every time I stand in line.  I knit it in the first day of having my knifty knitter looms and have since then conceived, created, and completed many more knit projects.  Anyone could; knifty knitters are a great way to finally learn knitting.





Knifty knitters come in long looms and round looms.  I like the long looms and how they are able to make "double knitting," which was used on that purse.  This knitting is thick enough to use for making rugs.  You can also do single knitting and knitting in the round on the long looms.  The round style are useful for hats, but you can not produce the thicker, double knitting on the round looms.


SO, if you have always wanted to knit, NOW you can.  Order some knifty knitters from Amazon (and while you are there, check out their yarns), and soon you will be knitting too.  Be sure to check back here, as I will be sharing tutorials and patterns, including the best little dish scrubber you could make.

I think I should also tell ya'll that after using the looms for a little while, I was able to understand knitting enough to also figure out how to use needles.  However, loom knitting goes MUCH faster and I will be using needles only for small projects that need a tight gauge.  I really can't imagine using needles to knit something like a baby blanket, which could be finished in a few days on the looms.

1 comment:

Millie Green said...
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