Posted on 3 Comments

Lessons in knitting

Two pairs of fingerless mitts for two boys

Shortly after my first successful pair of loom-knit fingerless mitts, visions of fingerless Christmas gifts started dancing in my head.  But first, I wanted to get a couple more practice pairs made, so that I could experiment with another stitch or two.

I made these two pairs for the boys.  The blue 24-peg Knifty Knitter loom I used for my own produced too wide of a tube for their skinny little arms, so I used 18 pegs of the yellow long Knifty Knitter.  The benefit of that was the slighly smaller gauge, which allowed me to knit with just a single strand of the yarn.  The downside was that it resulted in a panel, as opposed to a tube, and had to be sewn together.  Not a big deal, once I figured out the best way to finish it off so that it wouldn’t unravel, but I do really prefer the look of the tube.

Fingerless mitts for little hands

I wanted to try to eliminate the curling effect of the stockinette stitch, so I did these in the garter stitch.  I was happy with the way they turned out, and decided to try the same stitch on an adult-size pair.  I went back to the blue loom and the double strand of yarn, banged a mitt out in one evening, and decided it was too ugly even for the camera.  Poor ugly little mitt.

So here’s what I’m learning:  (And if you are an experienced knitter and know otherwise, I encourage you to correct me!)  It seems the stockinette stitch, produces a long, narrow fabric, as opposed to the fatter, shorter fabric of the garter stitch.  I liked the garter stitch in the kids’ mitts, but I really don’t like it with this round large gauge loom.

I still have visions of making mitts for all of those hard to shop for men (and some ladies, too) on my Christmas list, but now I’m thinking that I either have to upgrade to a grown-up loom, or just deal with the curl of the stockinette stitch.

Or I could just go with the smartest idea yet: don’t loom-knit Christmas gifts at all this year.  Wait until next year when I’ve got some experience and wisdom under my belt, and actually know what I’m doing!  That might make entirely too much sense, though, to be a viable option…

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Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “Lessons in knitting

  1. Hi-Good for you! Your creative muse is in a very active place! I have never used one of these looms but have been knitting for too many years to count. I would suggest you try doing a few rows of garter stitch at the beginning then switching to the stockinette stitch and then at the end of your mitt switch back and do a few rows of the garter stitch again. In traditional knitting ribbing is done by alternating knit (stockinette) and purl (garter) stitches as in knit 1, purl 1. Can you do a few rounds of alternating stockinette and garter stitches at the beginning and end? Keep us posted! Love your polymer buttons.
    Paula

    1. I had hoped to avoid the look of a cuff on both ends of these, as I figure would happen by using the garter stitch there, but it might be my best option. I’ll play around with those ideas today and see what I think. Thanks for the suggestions!

  2. Have you tried using the new loom clips for the long knifty knitters? This would allow you to use a larger loom and scale it down to the size you need so you can knit in the round.

    I agree try doing a few rows of garter stitch on each end to keep it from curling. Or some ribbing, knit 1, purl 1, for a few rows.

    See what Craft Junkie Creations has been blogging about: New years resolution

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