My mother has been a knitter all her life, she was decorating our wardrobes with wooly jumpers, cardigans, scarves ensuring all our wardrobes were exploding under her wool and cotton’s creations. We had blankets made out of crochet squares including of course various embroided items.
The passion to create from easily accessible materials finds roots into how magic and interesting is the yarn that intertwines with itself in so many different ways creating stunning jumpers. You change the way the yarn intertwine and right there, in front of your eyes you see the different changing pattern.
I always tried to learn to use knitting needles and I learnt a few basic things “knit and purl” not much, but I was really never happy of the result I obtained. I remember having started to make big squares of different colours, destined to become a old fashion sewn blanket entirely handmade.
It has been years since I worked with wool, it has been also few years since I thought about learning how to crochet, hoping that maybe, well I could learn how to use a crochet hook, but… I never really made anything.
For my birthday that has been few weeks away, I decided to gift myself something, and here it is, a splendid loom for knitting projects!
The way you thread the loom changes your stitch of course, and there are maaaany stitches of course. for this project of mine I thought about a stitch that my mom used often when creating cozy warm scarves, the ribbing stitch. Let’s all have a laugh at imagining me knitting a ribbing stitch with knitting needles, because I cannot do it, and I look like a kitty that played with a ball of yarn all and is stuck all tangled… yep, that would be me!
With this loom i simply have to learn a pattern and move the yarn accordingly, left to right and right to left, or I turn the loom around and I will keep working in the same direction.
The ribbing stitch is somewhat an elastic stitch that uses both sides of the loom and leaving a small opening in the center the creation will flow down naturally.
I have to say, at the beginning of the knitting I was extremely slow, pulling the wool way too much and being terrified by too much tension, I was worried I would have missed a stitch… but after the second and third time that I thread the loom I kept going, and going. Each row being faster, and a bit faster (although I do not believe I would ever be as fast as my momma with her knitting needles or with her crochet!!! – you cannot beat the Queen!!)
The more I kept looking at the stitch the more I saw how regular it was coming “out” of the loom, because the loom is fixed you cannot really add different tension to different stitches making the whole work very smooth and with the same tension and in a way, the same softness.
I have to admit that I didn’t have a plan when I started knitting this, just a red yarn and desire to test and learn new things (isn’t this the best way to enjoy something new?) but as soon as I saw the work proceeding so well I of course thought about making a scarf (yet another one!!!! LOL), while working I decided to stop all of a sudden and I closed the work and… ta daaa!
A scarf collar has been completed with the work being closed a wrapped with a crochet hook (look at me using different tools!!)
and here it is, I even wore it many many times, because I felt so happy and so proud of making it!
What do you think?
