Q: I’ve just bought a kit with several different sized round looms. They work great and I’ve got the whole knitting thing figured out. But here’s the issue. I’m bored of single colored and striped things. I want to do little patterns like hearts and polka dots and little moose eventually. Is there any possible way to do that? ((Btw, if you could put this in as simple terms as possible, I would be so happy. :] Im still quite new and haven’t gotten the terminology down. Thank you thank you thank you.))

A: What you’re asking for (it’s called “intarsia”) is really beyond the scope of a Knifty Knitter. You’d need either a knitting frame (such as the Incredible Sweater Machine) or to learn how to hand knit. About the closest you can come is a very rudimentary Fair Isle such as this one. I suggest instead that you look into different stitches you can make on a loom. I’ve probably seen about a dozen variations. The standard stitch for a loom is a sort of twisted rib. In order to do intarsia, you’d need first to master a stockinette stitch on the loom. Intarsia in the round is a form of insanity even when hand knit, which is why it is generally done flat and then seamed. So learn to do flat knitting on a circular loom first. Perhaps it’s time to graduate from the loom and learn hand knitting which will give you significantly increased options and techniques, things you can never do on a loom or even on a frame or machine.

It is difficult to work patterns on looms. You can work hearts or polka dots on after finishing the knitting by a method called swiss darning. This is sometimes called duplicate stitch. Google in “swiss darning” and various tutorial sites pop up. Chose the one you find easiest to understand.

Q: What is the difference between rectangular  knitting and circular knitting loom?

A: You can make pretty much any pattern that you have on a flat (rectangular) knitting machine whereas on a round knitter you are pretty limited.  I recently bought a knitting machine (flat) and can do everything with it that I want including cables, rib, intarsia (making pictures with different colored wool), you name it.  It does take a while to get the hang of a knitting machine and is way more versatile.

If you want to make socks and any other tube like stuff then a circular knitter is what you need.  But…if you’re going to fork over the cash for a knitter get a flat one and be willing to sew the seams.  You’ll be much better off and get more for your money.

the rectangular loom is for knitting flat pieces like scarves and the round is more for like hats and booties, but there are ways to knit flat on the round and round on the rectangle too.

Knitting is creating material usually out of yarn, but can really be made out of anything – thread, cotton, plastic, etc. It is a series of horizontal parallel courses of  yarn, which are joined by interlocking loops in which a short loop of one course of yarn is wrapped over the bight of another course.  It can be done by hand or by machine. Hand knitting uses a circular needle, 2 needles, 4 or 5 needles depending on the style.

Typically you cast on a series of loops one one needle and then each loop is the base for creating a loop for the next row. You use the second needle to reach through the loop on the first needle, grab the yarn, and pull it through and capture it on the second needle.  When all of the loops are worked, you turn the work around (over) and start again from the other side if you are working on straight needles (flat work).  Knitting can also be done in the round using either a circular needle or double pointed needles (4 or 5).

Working the loops creates a tube of material.  Another method of “knitting” is using a knitting loom – which is a series of pegs or nails to hold the loops.  The next round of stitches is wound around and then each stitch is worked using a small hook shaped tool.   Machines use a row of needles where the yarn is laid flat over the tops of open needles and then each needle is closed and the yarn is pulled through.  Crocheting is done with a single needle with a hook at the end.

Material is created by creating a chain of loops and then going back into each loop with the hook and pulling through a new loop to create the next row of stitches.  There are many variations on how the new loops are formed from a simple single crochet – pulling one loop through the old loop  until there are two loops on the hook and then pulling another loop through those two loops until a single loop remains on the hook – to double treble – which works through a series of loops 7 times.

Q: I’m doing a project where i have to plan a charity event to raise money for a genetic condition. the condition i chose was Raynaud’s, which is a disorder that causes the effected to have extremely cold fingers. i chose this one cuz me and my mum both have it. anyway, for my event i wanted to sell gloves, like the cheap knitted-material ones you can buy at craftstores, that said “Remedy Raynaud’s, the cold fingers disorder” on them. but i didnt know how to put the words on the gloves, and when i researched companies that made customized gloves like this they only sold them in quantities of 300-400, and it was really expensive. does anybody have any ideas on how to put the wording on cheaply so i could sell them for a fundraiser?

A: You could use a stencil and fabric paint–that’s probably the least expensive method. To answer your question, though, iron-on transfers do work on cotton or cotton-blend jersey, which is the knitted fabric from which most T-shirts are made. Embroidery is also a possibility. If you have access to an embroider machine, give that a try. Or get in touch with whatever company in your town has commercial embroidery machines for putting logos on team shirts, hats, and such. You might be able to talk them into doing a dozen or so at a reasonable price. If you’re doing this plan for a project and are not really going to put it into action, why not plan around the price per pair of the 300-400 minimum requirement from the company you found, if the price per pair is reasonable?

The main problems with using t-shirt transfer paper to put images on things like this is that the material you’re choosing is a knit, and may be acrylic/polyester/etc.

Materials like acrylic/polyester can kind of melt or flatten when too much heat and/or pressure is used on them (unlike cotton and natural materials).
And knits are not solid surfaces like most woven materials are, so there will be little holes all in the image/lettering, which will only get larger when the knit is stretched to go onto a hand.

You could stabilize the knit from underneath just in the area you want to do the lettering so it can’t stretch right there (using some kind of interfacing) but could get quite fiddly.
Or you could do the lettering on something woven, then glue or sew(?) those onto the gloves.

Or you could figure out something else that you could attach to the gloves which has your wording or even a symbol of some kind (with certain kinds of glues or large “stitches,” etc.).

Q: I’m looking for a circular knitting machine that is both capable of also doing flat knitting and is gauged for typical cotton yarn. Is there such a thing? I tried cotton on one of the cheap kids machines by singer, but the stitch is way too loose. so circular knitting machine that is good for cotton yarn?

A: Yes, that is what those machines are for. They make loose stitches. What else were you expecting?? They are set for a certain gauge, and you can’t change it. You need to use a thicker yarn, but then the mechanism doesn’t work that well. If you wanted a tighter gauge, you need to get a good machine made for that kind of work. (I have no idea what you mean by “typical cotton yarn”)

Whether it is cotton or wool or even ACKrillic, any machine should work, as long as you have it set up properly. This takes a lot of practice to get it to work right for you, and then you are all set.

There aren’t that many companies that make knitting machines anymore. If you want circular, you are looking at a sock machine. There is only one or two companies that make good machines, and they are pricey. Some flatbed machines will do circular knitting as well, if it is a double flatbed. And if you want to do all those features, you are going to pay a very high price.