I first learned about this technique at a women's event at my church in Oklahoma. We had a guest come and talk to us about easy, cheap, fun gifts you could either buy or make for Christmas—gifts under ten dollars—and it was through this event that I learned of the knitting loom. I, however, have also used this to make not only Christmas gifts but birthday presents, encouragement gifts, and baby shower gifts.
Here is a picture of the knitting loom I have:
And, yes, it's purple! :D You can find these at Walmart for eight or nine dollars. It is definitely worth it! You'll also want to get a crochet hook if you don't have one already: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Boye-Aluminum-Crochet-Hook-Set-Sizes-J-K-and-N/21989216
I have knit scarves and squares for blankets on this knitting loom, and I do this while sitting on the couch watching TV or a movie with my husband or friends. Once you get the hang of it, it's second nature to just sit down and knit. I've included the link to the video I watched to learn how to do this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpERQSnzk28
She uses two different strands of yarn in her video to knit her scarf, but with the yarn I highly recommend, you only need to use one strand. You'll notice in the picture above that I did actually use two strands of yarn but this was before I discovered a particular brand of yarn that I absolutely love! I use Lion Brand Hometown U.S.A. yarn for everything I knit on the loom. It is thick, soft, and fills out the scarves and squares nicely.
You can order a bundle of this yarn at Walmart online for a very reasonable price and they have this brand in so many different colors and patterns: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lion-Brand-Hometown-USA-Yarn-Value-Bundle-4-Pack/22153776
Not only have I made scarves with this loom but I have also made blankets—adult blankets and baby blankets. I made Aaron a blanket to give to him our first Christmas together when we were dating. If I could do it over again, I would use the Lion Brand yarn because it is much fuller and would have filled it out better. Unfortunately, when you pick up Aaron's blanket you can easily see the holes in the blanket because of the thin yarn I used. However, he still really loved it and we still have it in our blanket closet.
How I do this is by doing the exact same thing as the lady does in the video but instead of sectioning off some of the pegs so I limit how wide it is, I just use all of the pegs so I can get a nice, wide square. After I have knitted my squares, I lay them out and chain crochet stitch them together. Here is a video about the chain crochet stitch and other crochet stitches if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3-XL8ez3Ds He gabs on for a little bit at the beginning so if you want to get straight to the chain stitch, jump to about 1:48 and that's where he begins.
Then I crochet a little design on them if I want to. For Aaron's blanket, I just had plain squares without any embellishments, but I did want to add little animals on the baby blankets. Here are some of the baby blankets I made:
I hope you have fun with this and enjoy it! It's a great way to make fun, handmade, cheap but beautiful gifts for your friends or family! If you aren't much of a crafter and would rather just purchase something like this from me, feel free to visit my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/159912787/purple-knitted-scarf
I have a blue and purple scarf posted so far but I hope to post more in the future. I haven't posted any blankets yet, but I also intend to do that sometime soon as well. If you are very interested in a baby blanket, please message me with what you are looking for and I will then post it on Etsy with all of the pricing details so you can order it. These blankets usually take me about two to three weeks to make.
Once again, enjoy your easy knitting! :D
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