How to Loom Knit and How to Convert

Posted by Caley on February 3rd, 2010 at 07:34pm

Dear Readers,You have been pleading for instructions on how to convert loom knitting patterns into hand knitting patterns. You love our loom knitting patterns but you do not own a loom! Since I am a beginner to the craft, I have been doing some research for you all. Unfortunately, research tells me that converting from loom to needles is not particularly easy. Loom knitting is always done on the right side (RS) of the fabric, while needle knitting switches between the right side (RS) and wrong side (WS) of the fabric. WS stitches on a hand knitting pattern can be converted to the opposite stitches for a loom knitting pattern, but different RS/WS stitches are not specified in a loom knitting pattern and cannot easily be deduced.

If you think you know of a way to convert loom knitting patterns to hand knitting patterns, let us know!

If you love the loom patterns at our website, I would recommend that you think about purchasing a knitting loom or a knitting board. Knitting looms come in many different shapes, but a common shape is the circular loom used for hats and socks. Knitting boards, like those sold by Authentic Knitting Board (example shown above), are a kind of loom which creates a double knit fabric, finished on both sides. The “purl” sides face inwards and cannot be seen.  Knitting boards come in large gauge (1/2 inch between pegs) to finer gauge (3/8 inch between pegs). With these boards, you can adjust the distance between the rows of pegs or different effects.

Alternatively, you can make your own simple loom with a large wood picture frame and nails. Hammer a line of nails into the top and bottom of the frame, evenly spaced. To give you an idea of how big a loom you want, think of the pegs as each of the cast-on stitches on your knitting needles. Twenty pegs spaced about 1/2 inch part is a good general rule. For a step-by-step project on weaving with a homemade loom, see How to Weave without Special Equipment. You can use a small picture frame to create a small woven piece of fabric, for a coin purse for example.

To convert from a hand knitting pattern to a loom pattern, make sure that your loom has enough pegs for the number of cast-on stitches. Patterns for knitting in the round will not require stitch conversion as they do not have WS rows. They are the easiest to convert to loom knitting. For flat knitting, covert WS row stitches to the opposite stitch. WS purl stitches will become knit stitches. WS knit stitches will become purl stitches. Find a complete table for converting stitches here. You will then need to chart your stitch pattern using comfortable software or an old-fashioned pencil and paper. Row 1 is charted at the bottom of your graph, working from right to left. Assign a symbol for knit, purl and decrease and keep a legend for your chart. Test your conversion with a swatch.

Tags: Knitting, loom

Under Knitting Tags: Knitting, loom