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I'm nearly finished with my first project using my 10" Authentic Knitting Board. (Yes, I bought the 10" as well as the 28".) I'm using Berroco Vintage Yarn, which is a wool/acrylic blend, and a simple ribbed wrapping. The one little complaint I have about the yarn is that it snags quite a bit. I keep having small strands stuck on the knitting board pegs and then I have to carefully figure out where they belong and do that peg over. Other than that, it's a very soft, slightly worn-out yarn that is really warm and cozy. I'll post pictures of it later, as it is a Christmas present.
I've spent the past two weeks thinking about rigid heddle looms after visiting Susan Johnson's Alavanche Looms workshop way out in the backwoods of Wisconsin. It's worth the drive. Not only is she an extremely talented weaver, the store is beautiful and chock full of cool goodies. Susan chatted with me about weaving and got me wondering if I should give a loom a try. But then that led to another week of thoughts about somehow obtaining a rectangle loom to do continuous weave scarves and shawls... And then that led to yet another fascination: Peg Looms.
I've never heard of peg loom or stick weaving until I happened across a Ravelry discussion, but it appears to be a very old form of weaving, mainly used for making rugs. Although there are some peg loom sellers in the UK, I haven't spotted a US seller as of yet. However, there are instructions out there, so perhaps, with a little bit of patience, I could piece one together.
Here are some peg loom links: How to make a peg loom; How to use a peg loom; Examples of peg loom weaving.
Last night, I knitted a small sample on the 28" Authentic Knitting Board using just 22 pegs (and 22 pegs on the opposite side, too). I used some Berroco merino and followed the beginning of the pattern for the Luxurious Alpaca Scarf. What I learned is that I need to tighten the gauge because the knitting was a little bit too loose and the ribbing, which starts after six rows of stockingette, was not very distinct.
This board can be adjusted. Do you see the bolt on the end? There's another one on the other end, too. You may remove the bolt, take out the spacer in between each side, and then put something smaller in between, such as a washer. I'll have to scrounge around in the toolbox tonight for something appropriate. The closer the two sides of the board, the tighter the gauge. So, if you're working with a chunky or bulky yarn, or if you want a very loose knit, you would actually put more space in between the two sides instead of keeping it snug.
I was brainstorming last night and came up with a way to, possibly, turn this two-sided loom into a round loom by adding my own type of spacer (a piece of wood with two metal pegs). That way, I could knit socks or other small-gauge items in the round. We'll see how it goes.
I caved and purchased the 28" small gauge (84 pegs!) Authentic Knitting Board today from Hobby Lobby. However, I waited until Hobby Lobby had a 40% off weekly special and so the $37.00 board was purchased for just about $20. Not a bad deal. Why do I need another loom, you may wonder? Especially, when I already own...
- The Knifty Knitter round loom set (four looms)
- The Knifty Knitter flower loom and spool knitter (two looms)
- The purple Knifty Knitter rectangle loom
- Five 4" Square Looms: Two 4" Weave-its, One 4" Simplex loom, One 4" Hazel Rose Multiloom, One 4" Wonder Weave
- One Weave-it Rug loom
- One Regular Gauge hat loom
- One 24" Homestead Hideaway triangle loom
- Two potholder looms
- One extra fine gauge DecorAccents oval sock loom
- Three small flower looms
Someday, I'll take a picture of them all :) . All 22 of them...
But back to the question--why do I need another loom? In this case, the answer is pretty simple--I don't have a small gauge loom. At all! Plus, I really like double-knit. So, there. That's why I plotted and planned and waited and finally purchased my new knitting board today. I have plans for two Christmas presents to be knitted on this board, so I'd better get knitting.
As far as patterns, there are some free patterns on the Authentic Knitting Board website. I discovered a few more on the Lion Brand pattern site, and there is a fairly new Yahoo group for the knitting board, not to mention the other sites, boards, listservs, and Ravelry groups that include knitting board information along with knitting looms, so I think I'll have more than enough to think about. What I'm most excited about is moving away from super bulky yarn for a few projects.
I just spotted these simple and antique-y dishtowels on the Purl Bee's website, and I wonder if a similar towel could be knitted on a loom. Aren't they lovely? I've knitted a few dishcloths in the past, but I've never been pleased with the large-gauge finished product; however, if I use the garter stitch throughout, I bet they would come out fairly nice, especially with the stripes. I also think these would be perfect as a double-knit project with a rake or knitting board, especially something in the small to fine-gauge size. Something to think about!
In the past, I knitted a hat with the large gauge yellow Knifty Knitter loom, but it turned out too big. The yarn was an acrylic mix that didn't have much stretch, and so the hat was droopy. However, I feel the green loom is a little too small, so I tried the yellow loom again, this time using Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick. I decided to make a very long brim so I could fold it up. I did a K2, P2 brim, but because the yellow loom has an uneven number of pegs, I had to do a K3 on the final three pegs to keep the ribbing even. I knit about 4" (or 20 rows) for a brim, and then switched to the regular e-wrap stitch.
On the Yahoo Knifty Knitter group, I had read about finishing off a hat without doing the typical gather and I wanted to try it, so when I got near the top, I divided the loom into four sections with stitch markers (10 pegs, 10 pegs, 10 pegs, and 11 pegs), and decreased one peg as I knitted back and forth. For example, I knitted Peg 1 through Peg 10. On the way back I decreased one loop, and then knitted Peg 9 through Peg 1. Then I decreased another loop and knitted Peg 2 through Peg 9. When I got down to the final peg, I wrapped it with the working yarn, cut the yarn to about 12", and knitted the peg off, pulling the yarn through the final loop. Decreasing in this manner creates a triangle. I then did the final three sections (on the fourth section, I decreased two pegs on the first row because it has 11 pegs, not 10 like the others.) I turned the hat inside out and stitched the triangles together on the seams using the mattress stitch.
I really like my new hat. It's warm, fits just right, and looks great on a pumpkin.
I've been hankering to make a scarf, and after much thought, I chose a lovely Berroco Merino Pure in bordeaux. I decided to try the whole thing in a garter stitch pattern on the blue Knifty Knitter. After much trial and error, I frogged it and started again, this time on needles. After another try, I frogged it again, wondered why I really needed another scarf, and put everything away.
But today, I decided I really wanted another scarf, so I pulled out my little-used purple rectangle loom, an absoloutely enormous amount of Cascade Eco+ (7811) -- one skein is about 475 yards -- and an old sheet of wrapping patterns. Using just ten pegs (twenty if you count both the top and bottom) and a ribbed pattern, after just an hour or so, I had nearly two feet of my very, very purple scarf finished.
(NOTE: The drawings of the different ways to wrap came from the Yahoo Knifty Knitters Loom group files. It's under General Information and it's called "Various Wraps for a Board Loom." I'm using the Rib Wrap. It's also located here as a download.)
I just spotted this new tutorial on making flowers with ribbon on the Knifty Knitter Flower Loom:
http://radlinccrafts.blogspot.com/2009/08/cute-ribbon-flowers-made-with-flower.html
Here's another neat idea--embelish your cool crocheted purse with a flower:
http://yarnovermama.blogspot.com/2009/08/crochet-purse-with-knitting-loom-flower.html
It started out as Lazy Dog, the cute, floppy Weave-It dog featured on the Eloomanator's blog. But, since I didn't have the 4"x6" loom, and I didn't feel like studying the pattern, and my yarn was all wrong, I simply made six 5" Weave-It Rug Loom squares out of Wool-Ease and stitched them together. Of course, it didn't look anything like a dog... but it was, well, something.
We call him Pillow Man. His head is crooked, his arm and legs are rolled and stitched on at weird angles. Pillow Man is always sleepy and ready for a nap. So now, I wonder, will there ever be a Pillow Woman?
Okay, here are a few pictures of my second super, amazing loom find. As it turns out, I wasn't dreaming--it was all real! Pictured below are the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom, which I'll post about later (it's not very speedy, IMO). Also there are my two "new" Weave-Its: a 4" and a 2". My favorite loom is there, the 5" Weave-It Rug Loom, which I'll also post about later (and you can meet Pillow Man). Finally, there were two small metal flower looms stuck in the rug loom box, and although it appears they can connect somehow, I can't quite figure them out, so if you have thoughts, please send them my way.
Missing from the photos is the second Crazy Daisy Winder, which went onto a good home with a young, crafting niece.
Can it be true? Did I really walk into a local antique store last week and less than 20 minutes later, leave with all these looms??? Most in the original boxes with the original instructions and needles and everything? Did it really happen?
- 5" Weave-It Rug Loom
- 4" Weave-it Loom
- 2" Weave-it Loom
- Lily Speed-O-Weave Loom
And then did I really wander into a second antique store and leave with a Crazy Daisy Winder?
And did I really spend just under $20 for the entire find? Really? Me?!
Or, did I dream it all?
Stay tuned to find out!
