Clever looms

No picture today, folks.  I know, it's sad.  I miss my digital camera too.

This is an old-timer, before high speed internet type of post.  If you are shocked, proceed to look at my past blog posts instead and enjoy.


Question: Have you built a loom before?
Answer: No, but I really want to build one.  You see, I live in Canada.  Okay, I will admit that living in Canada has nothing to do with anything.  I'm really lazy to find out if there are stores that I can go to buy finer gauge looms than a knifty knitter or any of its cousins.  It's on my summer bucket list.  Seeing that I'm making a small profit from knitting stuff for people, this is a very BIG possibility, because I want to be able to change my knitting gauge.  The knitting gauge depends on the space between your pegs.

Question:  Why would you want to make your own loom?
Answer: The main reason is because I do not have any change to spare.  Any money goes towards my education.  Also, I am curious.  I want to know how to build one.  My dad once built my mom a huge weaving loom just for her to make one afghan.  He won't be helping me, but I guess history has a case of repeating itself....except this is a knitting loom.  Save your money, folks! You can save so much money by making your own looms.  Most of the time you will have the materials, or you can go out and buy the materials for a fraction of the price.

Question:  Will you post your looms if you make them?
Answer: Of course I will. I will make them this summer for sure.  However, they may be really bad.  I've never been good at hands-on stuff except for knitting and painting.  I just can't think in 3D. But never say never! I have never been motivated to build stuff (especially for school projects; I just didn't understand why I needed to build the Globe Theatre while studying Shakespeare).  I honestly cannot tape popsicle stitcks together to make a fence in a model. It's that sad.  What I'm trying to say is, I'm here to encourage everyone to try it at least once!


I've found two very useful sites to build looms.

Adjustable looms/circular-looms/double-rakes:
This is the most CLEVER way to make looms I've ever seen in my life.  This is more like what I would do, because I am not that great with tools.  For a finer gauge loom, you need real rubber bands (for example, the ones for hair - they don't pull your hair out like the elastic bands you get with groceries), pick-up stitcks, and spacer beads.  I am so impressed.  She also has adjustable looms, which I think would be great for berets.  The only way I know how to make berets with knifty knitters are to increase stitches off of your loom or make wedges and sew them together.  This is a quick fix!  Increases or decreases will look neater, especially if you want to do a drastic decrease. As soon as I have enough money I'm going to go buy these items.  I think I can pick them all up at the local dollar store.

I also have to put out a blurb, because she does great Harry Potter stuff.  Honestly, that was the reason I learned how to knit.  Go Ravenclaw!

Standard wooden looms:
This is if you want to make looms similar to those found on knittingboard.com.  This is the standard double rake loom (as opposed to the newest all-n-one loom, which looks amazing and makes me salivate, if that is possible).  It's a rustic site, but it goes step by step.  I will probably be doing this when summer time actually hits (July).


Happy looming!  If you don't know how far you need to space your pegs check out loom knitting help here.