Common Questions Asked and Answered About Loom Knitting
Written by: Anne Bipes
Author’s email: anne@loomknitting.com
Author's website: http://www.LoomKnitting.com
Q: Which way should I wrap the loom?
A: It doesn’t matter if you wrap from right to left (clockwise) or left to right (counter clockwise). Both are correct, so whatever feels most comfortable to you is fine. Keep in mind that once you start knitting flat pieces on round looms, you will be wrapping the loom in both directions.
Q: What do I do with the beginning tail that’s tied to the anchor peg?
A: After you’ve knit a couple rows, you can untie the knot holding the starting tail to the anchor peg. Let the yarn dangle from the starting row of knitting. When you’re done with your project, you’ll weave in that tail so it doesn’t show. Make sure you untie the knot so you don’t have a lump in your fabric where the tail gets woven in.
Q: How do I keep my knitting from being too tight?
A: Here are several suggestions: (1) Pull the yarn from the skein in a separate action from wrapping the loom. You should always wrap from a puddle of yarn, so there’s no tension on the yarn when you wrap it. (2) Hold onto the loop on the peg you just wrapped while wrapping the next peg so you don’t stretch the yarn between pegs too much. (3) Use a yarn wrapping tool or a short segment of a drinking straw to wrap the yarn on the pegs. (4) Or, wrap a peg, knit it off, then use your hook tool to pull some slack from the working yarn before wrapping the next peg.
Q: What does it mean to “knit off?”
A: To “knit off” means to remove the loop that’s on the peg from the previous row, leaving a new loop on the peg for the current row.
There will be two strands of yarn crossing the front of the peg. One strand is from the previous row and the other strand is for the current row. For knit stitches, you will bring the strand from the bottom of the peg over the strand that’s higher up on the peg and then off the peg. For purl stitches, the new loop gets created under the previous strand before the previous strand is removed from the peg.
Q: How do I switch to a new skein of yarn?
A: Use the first skein until there is about 6” left and let that tail hang to the inside of the knitting. Work the next stitch on the next peg with the new skein, leaving a 6” beginning tail. When you’re done with the knit piece, wrap the two tails around each other or tie them in a half knot, then weave the tails in going in opposite directions on the wrong side of the knitting.
Meet the Author:
  Anne lives in Plymouth MN with her husband and daughter, 4 cats, a rabbit, and a rotating variety of animals needing foster care. She writes instructions and designs patterns for knitting looms which can be found at http://www.loomknitting.com. She chronicles her adventures with the looms at http://LoomKnittingBlog.blogspot.com. Her book, Learn New Stitches on Circle Looms was published in December 2006 by American School of Needlework.
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