Thursday, October 20, 2011

Infinity Scarf with Knitting Loom (basics) video tutorial


The infinity scarves I made last year inspired a ton of people around me. My friends all wanted one to snuggle in during the winter time and their moms got inspired and took their hooks and needles out once again. How good that made me feel. I keep wishing I could make scarves for everyone but I feel more inclined to teach them to make their own. This is why I decided to make a tutorial for this year's chilly season. On top of that, in one of my latest travels to Mexico I found some beautiful oldish rectangular looms that I personally found hard to find here in Texas, so I brought a few with me and I will be listing them soon online.

The scarf you see in the above photo was made with about 300 yards of 5 ply yarn (unknown brand, I found it when thrift shopping and for a great deal). I used a 27 stitches (pegs) hand made wooden rectangular loom 17.5" long. My scarf is 5.5" wide and approx 48" long. Scarfs made with this loom are usually wider, but I did a trick to make it only five and a half inches when it's laying. It actually stretches up to 11 or 12 inches.



The tutorial I made includes a photo explanation and video of the rectangular loom basics, that is, how to knit the diagonal stitch and how to cast off. I also want to give people the option of trying different stitches, so I will be posting those later on.

Materials, get started, how to work the stitch.




Intermission: As you will appreciate in the next photos, the scarf I made with the diagonal stitch has a slight difference in the procedure than the one I showed you on video 1, this is I used a bigger loom and left one peg (post) unworked in between the pegs I worked. Example: 

Can you tell the "N" pattern?
Important: Each peg (post) is aligned to it's opposite from the row across the slot, bottoms with tops are all aligned, so if you work the first peg, make sure you work the first one on the row on top. Always begin on the bottom row. The N Pattern: if you skip one peg in between you'll see your yarn making an N pattern all along.

Why did I skip one peg? I wanted the scarf to stretch even more and let it breath.

Click photo to enlarge

Cast off. Note: you could use a crochet hook to make this easier.



Making the INFINITY
You see, Infinity means it has no ends, so you have to sew both ends together. But first I want to show you how to fix the first end. Did you notice that one of them looks like this: ?


Here's another video for how to fix that end:



Slip your last loose end through the loop too:


This is how both ends should look like:


Now you must put both ends facing each other by folding your scarf, and sew them together:


I often put all other loose yarns as in a sandwich so I can sew them at the same time:


Some people prefer to crochet or knit the ends together because they don't like how the seam looks. I normally don't mind since they're at the inside of my scarf and I don't think anybody will notice. By attaching both ends of your scarf together you can wear it in at least three different ways, you can use it as a hoody if you have no hats handy or simply wrap it twice or even three times around your neck.

Temperature is already going down to 50s and even 40s some nights here in Texas, a scarf like this would make a great gift or accessory for yourself when those temps remain the same during the day. Hopefully soon (winter lover here). I hope this tutorial was helpful.