Is a knitting loom really worth it?

Question

I am considering getting one of those knitting looms. Are they really worth it? Can you do more projects with it as opposed to regular knitting?

Answer 1

Knitting looms come in so many sizes and guages now that they and the items/garments you can make are almost endless--hats, yes, but socks, shrugs, afghans, sweaters, scarves, purses and bags, ipod and cell phone cozies, fingerless gloves/arm gauntlets, etc.

Check out some of the free yahoo groups on loom or rake or knifty knitter knitting. I did and am glad I did. I aready did crochet, machine knitting, beading, etc but was not a two needle knitter before I started into that craft with a knitting loom called a knittingboard and a few Knifty Knitters.

Some loommakers, including decoraccents, provocraft, bevscountrycottage, red oak creations and others have free patterns and animated tutorials/videos to learn new stitches oro ffer additional pattern books.

Isela Phelps is a particularly good loom knitting designer and so are Sara Buchanan, Connie Tenclay and others who are members of the yahoo groups i belong to.

I agree that some of the bulky, chunky things made on the knifty knitters as well as some of the earlier free patterns floating around on the net, were kind of bulky, chunky, ugly and homemade looking. But that's not the case now.

Amazon.com will soon sell a book by Phelps called Loom Knitting Primer and given what I know of her everyday stuff, I bet that will be cool. There are two other loom books out already that I know of: Learn to Knit on Circle Looms and Knitting Wheel Fashions, that are more basic.

In my opinion you are limited in this, as in any craft, only by your imagination, your willingness or unwillingness to branch out from the basics, your willingness to master the basics before launching into newer (potentially more difficult and/or frustrating) techniques, etc.

Like any craft or artistic skill, you have to come to it with an open mind and ready/willing hands.

If you want to try it, do! A complete set of beginner, chunky guage looms at wally world or hobby lobby may cost you less than $15 plus the cost of some yarn to get started. Why not try it and see?

Answer 2

IF you are already good with the regular needles and have no difficulties with your hands, I'd personally say skip the loom. If you're just learning, and find knitting tough-to-impossible with the needles, sure, get a loom. You get better results with needles, honestly, because the loom knitting always looks a little 'odd,' if you ask me. It doesn't come out quite the same way, but looks like it should've.

If you are an experienced knitter who's just frustrated with the length of time a sweater takes, a loom won't help. They take about the same length of time as an experienced knitter. Looms seem faster to a beginner, of course, but then again so does MY knitting with needles -- seems fast to a beginner, that is. So, if you're experienced, skip the loom and get a real knitting machine. There are hand-operated ones as well as electric. The hand-powered ones cost much less, of course. I'd say go look this up on Google or Dogpile. Look up 'home knitting machines' and see what the differences are, then refine your search a bit.

As to what you can do with it, a loom -- in my experience -- is more limiting than regular needles. I can do almost anything with needles, customizing everything as I go. A loom doesn't offer that flexibility.

If you're just learning to knit, put some time into it. Get some good music (whatever you call good music,) a nice big mug or glass of something nice to drink, and go curl up in a comfy armchair and practice knitting. Get some pretty yarn to practice with. Once you're comfortable with the process (after a few weeks, I'd guess) and don't need to watch your hands the whole time, put on a good movie instead of the music. Enjoy having 'down-time' that can also be productive.

Answer 3

well in my opinion a knitting loom makes the set up of what you are making easier however, it does take some time but when you are done what you did will be straight and level so i am going to say that a knitting loom is a good choice

Answer 4

My 40-something daughter found knitting with needles difficult, but she loves the loom....made me a beautiful scarf with it.....

Answer 5

I don't think you can do more projects. They are very good for people who have trouble holding on to knitting needles. (like me) If you want to do fancy fisherman knit sweaters and stuff it will be very difficult. But they are really good for beginners and doing simple projects.