Changes to come in the next year

Hi everyone,

I know I have a pretty strong following of people who have loom knitted for a long time and beginners who come on my website to learn how to use looms. I have not been here for a while, and I'm so sorry. That's about to change.

I'm sorry if I haven't been able to reply to comments, and for those who have answered the comments in my absence, thank you! This blog is not going away. In fact, I want to expand this blog and give you more free and useful content. I am hoping to be able to buy a domain name for myself too.

But first, I want to ask you what you want to know. What are you struggling with? Are you confused when you look at your knitting loom, or are you frustrated that the instructions that come with your loom don't give you a satisfying end product?

I'm actually in the midst of writing a mini loom knitting e-book about knitting scarves. However there are two problems with that, and I need your help, dear readers. I would love to know what looms you are using! There are so many looms out there and so many looms that maybe have been discontinued, so I would love to know a few things. Do you want to knit scarves? What loom are you using? And what do you find confusing or intimidating about loom knitting? The e-book is still in planning mode. It's really small. I want your feedback, especially because I don't want my readers to be confused by my awkward wording when I'm writing out instructions. I'm looking for at least five people to help me out (if anyone can, seriously) and the e-book would be free. Unfortunately, I can't help them pay for any yarn used, but I really hope that people will make wonderful things.

On another great note, I recently taught my youth group how to loom knit! They're currently finishing their scarves - yes, I know it's Spring now, but they'll have totally cool winter scarves. I'll be uploading a PDF so you can follow along with them and make a scarf for yourself! I've been considering a knit-along with the PDF but I'm not sure if anyone's interested.

Please leave a comment below and make sure you don't comment as anonymous - so I'll know how to get back to you!

Brioche

So I see that Brioche is something the loom knitters really want to know. It's fairly simple and easy to crack. I have a few pictures that I hope will help you loom knit brioche. All you have to remember to make your basic brioche stitch is yarning over (YO) and knitting, alternating the pegs where your YO are each row. You can look at these tips for knitting in the round or knitting panels.   I also have some tips, to help loom knitters interpret brioche stitch patterns from regular needle knitters.

My pictures are assuming you are always knitting in the same direction (aka knitting in the round).  However, read the steps over and look at the pictures.

Step 1: Cast On

1. Cast on.
Nothing to be said here.

Step 2. * sl1 (do not knit) yo, k1, *

2. Prep row.
a. Do not knit your first peg, but yarn over. Make sure that it is not an e-wrap YO. Make sure your YO looks like the picture below.
b. Knit over the second peg.
c. Repeat a and b for the whole row.

Tip: YO.

TIP: YO

The second peg is a YO. This is a bad picture... I know, but make sure you're not e-wrapping.

Step 3. *BRK1, sl1 yo, *

3. First brioche row!
a. If you remember, you left peg 1's stitch on and did a yarn over. Therefore you had 2 loops on peg 1.  Knit  loops over. Now peg 1 has only one loop on it. That is a BRK (brioche knit).  See the next picture for a BRK.
b. Now, do not knit peg 2, but YO.
c. Repeat a and b.

BRK - Brioche Knit. So simple.

TIP: BRK

The yellow coloured peg is about to be knitted over. The bottom loop is the stitch that you left alone, and the top loop is the YO you did the previous row. Knitting over will leave you with the new loop!

Step 4. * sl1 yo, BRK1

4. Second Brioche Row! Doesn't this look familiar? Except...
a. Do not knit over peg 1, but YO.
b. If you remember the last row (and you will, if you are working on your knit while you are currently reading this), you peg 2 had 2 loops on it. You know what that means by now (hopefully). Knit them over (BRK).
c. Repeat step a and c.


5. Repeat the pattern.
You keep repeating step 3 and 4. And voila! You should have your brioche stitch.




Extra tips:

• Panel knitting - It's really up to you to start your prep row with a yarn over, or to knit your first peg. It is also up to you whether or not you want an even or odd number of stitches, but your edges will be the same if you have an odd number of stitches.
• Working this pattern in colour - Stripes, anyone? To do this, still follow the same steps BUT remember that each peg uses the same colour yarn each row.
• Creating variations of the brioche stitch are by using alternate positions of YOs and BRKs. So, you should be able to learn new stitches.  For example, one step of the brioche stitch written is "yf sl1, yo, brk1". You do not need to know "yf sl1" because it means yarn forward, slip one, yarn over for needle knitters. Just know that for a loom knitter, it means that you do not do anything for that peg except yarn over, so that there will be two loops on the peg, and then BRK the next peg.
• However, some brioche stitch variations do not look as eye-catching as they do when you use needles for knitting. This is because you will always have the same amount of tension on pegs. I've tried the pearl brioche stitch on a loom, and it doesn't look as nice. 

Please tell me if you have trouble panel knitting brioche!

Tiled Blanket pattern

New pictures - smaller but better!

The right side up close. It's quite pleasant!

I made this blanket for my aunts' Christmas present. I actually tiled the blanket, but it ended up taking really long to sew, so this is my amended version, and I hope it works. Please change this pattern to see fit to how you like it. Always knit a swatch and block it before going ahead of this project, because it uses a lot of yarn.  This is not a double knit! It requires knitting back and forth on the loom. I took the pattern from knitting on the net squares in squares stitch. I tried to mimic the pattern in 3x3 squares in squares. I would say this is an intermediate pattern, but it really isn't. It's just that it is a tedious pattern and you need to be committed to it to finish it; the hours are long, but you have something very warm at the end. You also must be comfortable at purling stitches, and you will need to block each panel.

Onto instructions, patterns and extra links


You can also mark your progress on this project on Ravelry.

Items you need for knitting:

• 36-peg round loom (knifty knitter, loops and threads, and the large wal-mart looms are all the same)
• bulky yarn - I used 3 300g balls of Bernat's Chunkee Ombre in Wedgewood - they are considered 6, super bulky, so you can double up worsted yarn or find another bulky yarn
• sewing needle

Pattern for each panel:
Cast on using any sturdy cast-on (do not use e-wrap knit over cast-on) on 32 pegs.
Row 1 and 2: Knit.
Row 3 and 4:  Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 5 to 10: Knit 2, *purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 11 and 12: Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2.
Row 13 and 14: Knit.
Row 15 and 16: Purl.
Repeat pattern (Row 1 to 16) 3 more times, and then repeat the pattern from row 1 to 14 once.
Cast off.

In total you should have 5 "tiles" of the square repeats. This is one panel.

Make 3 of these panels altogether, block them, and sew them together.


Links that should help:

Sewing - I used the mattress stitch - which means that you will notice the seam on the wrong side - it's not that bad looking, but you can also think about slipping the side stitch when you start the next row and sewing it in a different manner. Do not be scared of trying it out (though I would recommend you making 2 small samples of the pattern and then sewing them together). I avoided sewing like the plague, but this is easy, straightforward and fun! It may require for you to look at more than one website - to complete the picture in your mind on how to do it.

• http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-join-knitted-pieces-with-the-mattress-stitc.html - This is the dummies version that gives you a drawn diagram on how to do the mattress stitch - I like how it is drawn - it is neat. You can clearly see how to start sewing, but it is hard to see the "ladders" you use because the picture does not show depth.
• http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html - Knitty has a great tutorial (and they are located in Toronto!!) on how to do the mattress stitch for different seams. Of course, this project is just seaming the stockinette stitch. This is possibly my favourite instructional webpage for the mattress stitch. You can see how you you have to pull your stitches apart a little to find the running ladder. They also have some good tips that other pages may not talk about.
• http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/howto/archive/2009/04/10/mattress-stitch-tutorial-vertical-seams.aspx - I don't really like the tutorial as much, because it is hard to see where the running ladders are - but (! sorry for the exlamation marks by the way) they have a good picture of how your the seam looks on the wrong side of your knit. This is so you won't be surprised at how it looks like.

Blocking - Acrylic requires heat to block. If you don't block this big project, it will be all wavy - the easiest way is to throw your project in the dryer since this project is pretty big.

• http://rainyknits.blogspot.ca/2006/08/blocking-acrylic.html - no pictures, but this tells you how to lay out your for blocking and what kinds of things to use (an iron) to block. I found this more informative than the other articles, because the other posts were smaller projects.
• http://beadknitter.blogspot.ca/2009/03/you-can-block-acrylic.html - Pictures of an acrylic shirt pre-blocked and blocked
• http://a-modicum-of-ingenuity.blogspot.ca/2012/03/tutorial-blocking-acrylic-yarn.html - Another pre-blocked, blocked post, this time of blanket/afghan squares. Your project would be substantially larger (and I wouldn't recommend knitting squares because sewing is very time consuming - even more so when you do horizontal seaming)

Have fun, and if you have any questions, please ask! I must remind you this is a very time consuming project, and that patience is very important (to finish this project). It took me 8 days to make. This was also because I knit in squares, and then had to learn how to sew them together (which I regret a bit - I messed up a billion times).

The wrong side also looks really nice! My sister liked the wrong side more.

Happy New Year! I am late

Hi everyone! I have been so busy lately I haven't been able to post. My research project took up a whole chunk of my time, and after that, I was working on finishing my Christmas presents! And now a new (and hopefully) final semester has come

I only have big looms, so I had to nix the idea of making everything using a loom, since chunky knits can use up a lot of yarn. Don't judge. I gave away 29 presents to my family members this year, although most of them were not knitted products! I am not even including acquaintances here.

Baby keyhole knit scarves, style a la anthropologie

I messed up the purple cast off (which I later fixed). The difference in size is because one baby is older than the other.  I'm sure you can make something similar on the loom, but the stitches would be bigger.

Loom knit lap throw

Mattress stitching this baby up. The giftees love colour. I regret that I could not do this project in one colour - this was the only bulk yarn with 3 rolls left during holiday time... but they still like it. It's super warm. (The next post shall be...)

I did use a loom! I made a tiled blanket of a squares pattern for my aunts.  Unfortunately, I should have thought ahead and made 3 long panels. I ended up making 15 squares for the blanket and sewing them together. I actually like sewing...but the weaving in the ends was the most annoying part. I'll probably post a pattern later in the week. Acrylic is a pain to block, and I unfortunately finished the blanket too late to be able to throw it in the washer and dryer...so hopefully they'll do that to straighten it out.


Some other news: I will be having a minimum post a month.  They may not be tutorials or anything...but possibly even projects I did, because those posts take up less time. Fingers crossed that I will be able to do my schoolwork and post and volunteer. I also apologize for the photos taken from my cell. I totally regret that.

Toe-up cable booties

I made these earlier in the summer.  After successfully and easily finishing my 2-coloured sock, I wanted to try something else. I saw someone's toe-up sock (I'm sorry, I don't remember which blog it was), and I thought to myself, why not?

Sorry for the bad picture. Anyways, notice the weird bumps near the toe? Since I did a cast-on where the toes were, I found I had to knit over very loosely at the beginning so that my loops would eventually be able to be stretched over 24 pegs (I started at 12).  This could also be because the yarn didn't have a lot of give. I had extra baby yarn so I had to triple (or was it quadruple) knit with the loom.

This is different from a toe-down sock where you would stitch your sock closed at the toes.

I find the 24-peg loom pretty ugly for these cables; I guess big gauge socks are pretty ugly... but I guess using this loom would be okay for booties. 

What's in your yarn bag?

I finally finished crocheting my yarn stash bag and have slowly been transferring my yarn stash into it.



I've been practicing herringbone, as you can see. Not pictured: a dozen type of cables and a mesh t-shirt on looms, and a crochet sweater I need to start.

Youtube Round-Up Comes Back for Some More!

I'm back! Long story short, a break from the internet became an even longer affair after those Olympics set in...and then the Paralympics.  I turned into a total sports zombie (even though I promised myself that I wouldn't go nuts during the Olympics again). Crazy sport-nut that I am, I was in bliss for a while.

Anyway, onto the links!  Today I go back to the basics! I love Isela Phelps.  Her videos are great, and they're pretty short, too!

• Simple Crochet Bind Off
• Basic Bind Off
• Knit stitch (the normal one, not that e-wrap one)