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.

Zig-Zag Spring Hat Pattern

Here is my pattern, finally! It's ridiculously easy!  I saw a beret by Debbie Stoller (Stitch Nation) in Vogue Knitting.  I changed it by doing the first section as a k2tog instead of an ssk, but that's the only difference I made.  Unless you increase your stitches off the loom, or make wedges, it is difficult to make a beret, so it is just a toque. Sorry if I'm not very accurate; I really like to be flexible with patterns and therefore, I don't have any row numbers for hats. You can adjust if you want it to be a beanie (which is shorter).

41 or 40 peg loom (Knifty Knitter/ Michaels/ Wal-Mart brand does just fine)

Some people still have the 41-peg knifty knitter looms, but this pattern works best on any multiple of 4 (so you can also do it on a 36 peg loom).  For the 41 peg loom, the last peg should be purled.


Yarn size and gauge don't really matter, but I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn and doubled it up.  You just need a fairly thick yarn (5 and up, or doubling up yarns) for the 41-peg loom. I broke the pattern down into 4 parts.

Stitches you need to know:

Knit (k) - normal stockinette stitch. Do not use e-wrap (twisted stockinette) stitch

Purl (p) - if you do not know how to do this stitch, please see this past post of Youtube compilations

Knit 2 together (k2tog) - In the pattern, for the first repeat of the ladder slanting to the right, your first k2tog occurs on peg 4.  To do this, take the loop off of peg 3, and then put it on top of peg 4. Yarn over peg 3 and knit together as 1 on peg 4.

Slip slip knit (ssk) - ssk - slip slip knit. This is weird in loom knitting because you don't have to do anything (whereas you have to slip the two stitches off the left needle, but I digress).  To make a ladder slant to the left, you take the loop off peg 3, and put it above the loop on peg 2, which will now have 2 stitches.  Knit those together as 1, and yarn over peg 3.

Yarn over (yo) - this is mentioned in combination with the k2tog and ssk. You do a yo before a k2tog. Basically bring the working yarn in front of the empty peg (because you moved the stitch to the next stitch for a k2tog) very loosely.  Do not e-wrap. You do a yarn over after the ssk has occu


PATTERN:

CO: 
Use whatever you like. I love the cable cast on for hats, because it looks like a thin line from afar and is stretchy. A long-tail cast on is a bit thick, but it also works nicely and is elastic.

Rib stitch
Row 1: *p2, k2
repeat row 1 until 1" is knitted

Ladder slant to the right
Row 1: *p1, k1, yo, k2tog, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 4" for a beanie, or 4 1/2" for a regular hat

Ladder slant to the left
Row 1: *p1, ssk, yo, k1, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 6" for a beanie (or even less, if you like them really short), or 6 1/2" for a regular hat

Decrease
Because the second half of the hat uses ssk I did a decrease using ssk instead of k2tog.  I didn't touch the purl stitches and only decreased on the knit stitches trying to maintain the pattern of the hat. After doing the amount wanted, bind off and weave in ends.

If you are having trouble, please read more.

Weekend Youtube Roundup

Finally! I was supposed to finish this post two days ago, whoops! My excuse is that it was my birthday.  Anyways, most of these posts are new videos that go along with articles from loom knitters circle! These are great, especially Bethany Dailey's bind off/cast off comparison.

Today's videos will show you:

• Chain lace stitch
• Bind off / cast off comparison for loom knitting
• slip one knit one pass over slipped stitch

Weekday Youtube Linkage II

I have been remiss on these video posts! These are the easiest posts I make!

Today you will find:

• How to knit a twisted keyhole scarf (very fashionable)
• Two-colour brioche stitch on the round loom!
• Slip with yarn in front (sl wyif)

I tried out the brioche stitch, and I absolutely love it. Every time I see using two colours in a project, I immediately turn all nerdy and think about how great it would look if I knit it in Harry Potter colours (blue and bronze for me - GO RAVENCLAW!), and I see myself getting broke in the near future.

Right side

wrong side - still looking good nonetheless

Onto those links!