A couple of weeks back I wrote about my renewed interest in
spool knitting. I said I had found my
two childhood knitters in my mom’s attic with yarn still in them. I didn’t want to take the yarn out for fear I
wouldn’t know how to start the cord again.
So for those of you who went hunting for your old spool
knitters or for those who wanted to start spool knitting, here is how to spool
knit (or at least how I do it.) Of course you will need a spool knitter and a
tool or crochet hook to “knit” the yarn.
1- Start with a simple knot with a tail of yarn coming off
the knot so it is long enough to go through the spool knitter and come out the
bottom. You will need to be able to tug
on the yarn to pull the cord through the knitter as you work it. I am using my little doll knitter which is
about 4 inches long. Many spool knitters
these days are shorter in length.
2 Slide the yarn
tail into the hole of the spool knitter making sure it comes out the
bottom. Then slip the knot over one of
the pegs and pull the tail to tighten the knot.
3- Take the yarn coming off your skein and wrap it around
the next peg going clockwise. So start
the wrap going inside the pegs toward the hole. Now come clockwise around the
peg taking the yarn again inside the pegs to the next peg. (You can go in either direction depending on
whether you are right or left handed. I
go to the right since I am right handed. )
Repeat the wrap with the other pegs until you get to the first peg with
the knot..
4- Now you can begin knitting. Lay the yarn coming off your skein above the
yarn wrapped around the peg. Then with
your tool or crochet hook bring the lower yarn (in this case the one wrapped
around the peg) over the top yarn strand.
5- Repeat this step with each of the remaining pegs. Every once in a while take a tug on the yarn
coming out of the bottom of your knitter.
It helps pull the cord through.
When you are back at the first peg, your ‘knitting’ should
looks something like this from the top of the spool knitter. If you went to the left in wrapping the pegs,
your knitting might be a little different since the yarn had gone in a
different direction. But either way,
YOU ARE KNITTING.
6- That is all there is to spool knitting. Just continue steps 4 and 5 until you have a
cord the length you want. If the yarn
you are pulling up and over seems a little tight, when you bring the yarn loop
over, take your tool and pull out or loosen the yarn remaining on the peg.
7- When you have the length of cord you want, cut the yarn
from your skein about 4 inches long.
Bring the yarn tail around the peg and knit as before but this time pull
your yarn tail through the loop so it comes off the peg.
8- Do the same thing with the other three pegs. Pull the coil out of the spool knitter. If
you want you can hide the two tails of un-knitted yarn in the coil. If I am
making bracelets, I leave tails as they are so the bracelet can be tied.
But if I hide the tails, I use a plastic yarn needle but any big eyed needle would do (like
tapestry or needle point). Thread the
yarn through the needle and then work the needle into the coil entering at the
very end of the coil. Once you have hidden the yarn into the coil, cut
off the excess yarn.
With the strings hidden, you can now make anything you want
with it.
© 2016 – Cheryl Fillion
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