An unexpected visitor...loom knit beer cozies, and a surprise

A few days ago we had an unexpected visitor to our bird feeder right outside our living room window. After a day or two, our "visitor" invited more of his kind on over and we had nearly 10 of them pecking around at the dropped bird seed from above. What a wonderful discovery! I am really enjoying living out in the country having such beautiful wildlife come right to my door....



Our Visitor


I just finished my sister and her husband's Christmas gifts. They were very simple, but it took me awhile because of the color work. Basically, I cast onto my fine gauge loom 45 pegs using the e-wrap cast on method. Second, I Knit one Purled one for 5 rows (a flat panel) in my contrasting color (slipping the end stitches on each turn). On row 6 I changed to my second (or main color) and knit two rows. Then following my graph I created in Excel, I started my color work. I finished up with one row of knit in the contrasting color and four rows of Knit one Purl one. I used the crochet bind off method with a single crochet in between each join. I used the mattress stitch to sew up the sides, and voila, custom beer cozies for the Minnesota Vikings fan. Now they wont get eachother's beer mixed up when they watch the game!





Anyone who is a member of my loom knitting yahoo group Decor Accents, knows I released my loom knit gloves pattern last Friday. Well, the glove pattern I am selling is by far superior to the first glove pattern design I made (my prototype). The first one made it possible for me to design the second version. I had a lot of issues with this pattern I wasn't able to solve. The worst of which was making the fingers larger to fit my hand without making the hand portion too large. When I did figure out a way to make the fingers larger, I got some holes that needed to be fixed. For anyone with slender fingers, or for anyone who doesn't mind mending holes, this pattern is offered here free for personal use. Feel free to share this pattern with a direct link to my blog!


Glove Prototype 1

Crochet cast on 45 stitches clockwise (or left to right on a single sided rake) onto a fg loom with at least 45 pegs.

Finger 1
Row 1: e-wrap and K all stitches across
Row 2: P10 K35
Row 3: e-wrap and K all sitches across
Row 4: P10 K35
Rows 5 & 6: e-wrap and K12 turn and K12 (clockwise). 33 stitches will not be knit on this row.
Row 7: e-wrap and K12 on stitch 13 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 13th peg

(counterclockwise), e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 8: P10 K35 and crochet cast off 12 stitches and single crochet after joining each stitch but do not single crochet after joining the last two

stiches, use the loop from this bindoff to begin row 9 (33 stitches will remain on the loom).
Row 9: Crochet cast on 15 stitches clockwise placing first cast on stitch onto the 33 peg (there will be two loops on this peg)

Finger 2
Row 10: Repeat rows 1 through 5
Row 15 & 16: e-wrap and K14 turn and K14 (clockwise). 31 stitches will not be knit on this row.
Row 17: K14 and on row 15 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg (counterclockwise),

e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 18: P10 K35
Row 19: Crochet cast off 12 stitches following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 20 (33 stitches will remain on the loom).

Finger 3
Row 20: Crochet cast on 15 stitches using method described in row 9 and repeat rows 1 through 4
Row 24 & 25: e-wrap and K14 turn and K14
Row 26: e-wrap and K14 on stitch 15 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg

(counterclockwise), e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 27: P10 K35 and crochet cast off 14 following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 28

Finger 4
Row 28: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9.
Row 29: Repeat rows 1 through 4
Row 33 & 34: e-wrap and K20 turn and K20 (clockwise) 25 stitches will not be knit on this row
Row 35: K20 and on row 21 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg (counterclockwise),

e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 36: P10 K35
Row 37: Crochet cast off 20 stitches following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 38

Thumb
Row 38: Crochet cast on 13 stitches (first stitch placed on last stitch from previous row - there will be two loops on this peg)
Row 39: Repeat rows 1 through 8 two times (16 rows worked). Do not do a crochet cast off until you have worked the 16th row.

Finger 4 (backside)
Row 40: Crochet cast on 21 stitches following method described in row 9.
Row 41: Repeat rows 29 through 36
Row 49: Crochet cast off 12 following method described in row 8 with bindoff to being row 50

Finger 3 (backside)
Row 50: Crochet cast on 15 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 51: Repeat rows 20 through 27

Finger 2 (backside)
Row 56: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 57: Repeat rows 10 through 18
Row 61: Crochet cast off 14 stitches following method described in row 8

Finger 1 (backside)
Row 62: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 63: Repeat rows 1 through 7
Row 69: P10 K35
Row 70: Crochet cast off glove from loom.

Finishing:
Sew up each finger and side of glove using the mattress stitch. I also did a version where I slipped the loops created from the crochet cast off onto the loom with right sides of the glove together, then I took the top part of the glove I needed to join and slipped those loops from the crochet bind off onto the loom and knit off. Then I did an additional crochet bind off and whip stitched the tops of the fingers closed. Turn glove rightside out. Make another glove.

© Copyright 2007 Karen Gielen For personal, non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.

Sock it to me!

My Crowning Achievement!

Now you can create a pair of gloves with fingers in half the time it takes to needle knit a pair! Create a pair of these cozy gloves with fingers using your fine gauge round loom with 40 pegs (the fg adult sock loom from Decor Accents was used for this design). These gloves features a thumb gusset that swings both forward and backward making them interchangeable, therefore you will not have a right or left hand glove! I didn't officially time how long it took me to create a pair of these since I took lots of breaks to care for my family, however, I would guesstimate the time at approximately 3 hours for each glove! That's half the time of conventional knitting on DPNs! Once you get the hang of things, your next pair should go even faster still. Sized to fit a medium/large woman's hand, they make a great last minute Christmas gift for the women in your lives! The skill level is intermediate since you will be using some advance seaming techniques. A link for a great video tutorial on this advance seaming technique is provided for advanced beginners to broaden their looming skills! Enjoy!