Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mittens ~ Loom Knitting


I have had so much fun today making my very first set of mittens!

I found this great loom company at the Wool Market and bought their mitten loom online. It is super affordable and easy to use.

Round looms are wonderful for knitting. You do not need to know how to knit to use them. The looms come in all sorts of sizes to make anything from hats to socks and mittens. You may have used something like these but smaller when you were a kid to make cords. Those are called French Knitters.

I learned about these looms a couple of years ago when I first discovered the wool market. Here are some of the dozens of hats I made in 2007.


I kept a couple of them and recently sent the rest to South Africa with my squares. I just received a note from the people at Knit-A-Square and they told me how much the children loved them. That made me so happy! :)


The hat loom I originally purchased was made of wood but I love this new flexible plastic! It is much more affordable and fun to work with. The plastic flexes with your hook and makes casting off the stitches smoother than the ridgid plastic looms you can find at Michaels or any craft store.

Here is a link to In the Attic's Flexi-Looms. They are so fun and easy to use!
It is worth repeating that you do not need to know how to knit or crochet to use them. :) I taught myself how to make the hats and mittens with the instructions that came with the loom along with some video tutorials online.


Here is the start of my mitten with the cuff coming out the bottom.

The body of the mitten is made in the bigger loom and the thumb is made in the tiny loom and then you whip stitch the two pieces together to get a finished mitten!

Ta da!




Look Emmitt! I made a mitten!

Please let me know if you try these looms. You will love them!

16 comments:

Manon said...

Hey Melissa,
Now this... I can do! I've made a scarf with this kind of loom. I wouldn't venture into anything like mittens so I'll admire yours.

Mia said...

Melissa, you are so talented and creative. Thank you for sharing that beauty with the rest of us!!

Linda O'Neill said...

You are amazing! Nice mitten...now let's see some hats!:)

Kelly said...

I love it, Melissa! SURELY I could do this, right?!

Diane said...

These are great Melissa! Your talents are endless! xoxo Diane

Tara's Art Camp said...

hhmmm, a possibility, yes lets see hats!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! I used to make cords as a kid, I had a little blue loom. We made barbie doll dresses at one point too :)

Mare said...

Hi Melissa, i LOVE loom knitting and have made many many hats with the ones i have here, but i am very tempted to try your new models! Thanks for the info and link!

Liss said...

That's a nice mitten! You're so creative.

Ruth Welter said...

Hi Melissa, I love your mitten...that is just wonderful. Emmitt looks quite excited about it too...maybe he thinks something good is coming out of the over for him? : )

I loved seeing in the below post, the wonderful things your customers do with your artwork. You are so lucky you receive photos....

Ruth

GAIL said...

Very cute mittens. I love the pic with Emmitt!

Fannie said...

Hi, Melissa. Love your mittens. Maybe I can do this. Thanks for sharing.

Molly the Airedale said...

Mom simply must get one of these looms! Imagine if she could knit one sockie in less than a month! How cool would that be?!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Resweater said...

I almost think I could do that! I totally LOL'd at the pic with Emmitt! Great job :)

marianne said...

What a great machine!
Cute picture of Emmitt, he is always so curious and supportive!

Tweedles -- that's me said...

There is that cutie Emmitt !
Well now your mitten is pretty,
Mom says she cannot follow instructions! But she would like to try, looks fun!
love
tweedles