Knit a Simple Hat on a Knitting Loom

Do you ever loom knit? I do from time to time, though I still feel like knitting with needles is faster, it’s sometimes fun to do something a little different.

This loom knit hat tutorial from Do it Your Freaking Self (great name!) takes you through all the basics of loom knitting to make a simple hat.

She adds in the use of a paper straw to help hold the yarn, which I have never tried before. Has anyone else used this technique?

Even if you don’t, this is a great basic hat pattern that’s good for teaching kids how to use a knitting loom or to learn for yourself.

If you have any favorite loom knitting patterns, I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo via Do It Your Freaking Self.]

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I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

the simple cinching method mentioned above
sewing the stitches together
three needle bind off
grafting
crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!

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