Who am I and what do I know?

If anyone was wondering why I started this blog I'll explain. I picked up a knitting loom for the first time back in November of 2006 after my sister took me to this quaint little yarn shop in Avon, MN where she purchased some knitting needles and a couple skeins of yarn. She pointed to a loom while we were there and said her friend's daughter was knitting hats with one of them. I picked it up and inspected it and it piqued my curiosity. I learned to knit with knitting needles from my mother when I was a child but hadn't knit anything in many years (simply due to a lack of time due to my large family). Since I am always interested in teaching myself new things, especially anything related to the creative arts, I wanted to teach myself how to loom knit.

I went home that day without buying the loom this little shop had but kept the idea in the back of my mind. A few days later I was in Crafts Direct in Waite Park, MN. I walked down the isle with the yarns and spotted a whole pack of knitting looms from Provo Craft called Knifty Knitting Looms. They were on clearance and I couldn't resist. I bought a couple skeins of yarn and an instructions booklet to jumpstart me on my looms. I decided to make a couple hats for my kids since they are forever losing their hats and mittens. It went very quickly! I had a hat made in a couple hours. I knitted up my couple skeins of yarn and sat there wishing I had more. My family and I were in the middle of a move and we had a shed full of boxes packed up with all of our stuff. In one of those boxes I knew I had some yarn stored away from back when I was working on a crochet project. I ventured out to the shed and began digging. I was elated when I found a skein of bright red and bright green yarn. I snatched them up and went back inside and sat down with my find. Since it was November and Christmas was just around the corner, it was perfect for a cute little Christmas hat for my three year old daughter. I knit her up a hat by the next day. She loved it! Of course, after knitting up a couple hats, everyone else wanted something! Thus began my love of the knitting loom.

I’ve been knitting a little every day on my looms ever since. I have discovered that there are so many wonderful things to knit (I just learned the other day that you can transfer needle knit projects to a loom too). I am just amazed at how quickly the projects go (which is great for me in my busy family of eight). The results from a knitting loom make me look like an expert knitter who has been knitting for years! My sister is enjoying her knitting needles and I am enjoying my knitting looms. I am now here in this blog, typing away with the intent on sharing my ideas and teaching others while I learn and hopefully find some other loom knitters out there who I can connect with and learn from too! Of course, being the creative person I am, I will from time to time discuss my other creative endeavors too! I also can’t leave out mention of the recipients of all of my little loom knitting projects – my six little children.

The first tip I would like to share: if you only have a couple stitches to hold, instead of a piece of yarn or a stitch holder, use a twisty tie. My latest project called for dropping just two stitches and placing them on a stitch holder or a piece of yarn. I found threading a stiff twisty tie into the loops and pulling them right off the pegs was quick and convenient. I just twisted the end of the tie after I snatched up my loops, tucked the tie down into the middle of my loom and carried on with my project slick as a whistle.