AddiSpecificKnittingLoom
| Project Addi compatible knitting loom | |
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| A knitting loom for doing the difficult things on a machine knitting project | |
| Status | Completed |
| Contact | Molenaar |
| Last Update | 2024-06-12 |
My 22 needle circular knitting machine is great for making socks, but making the heel part on the machine is so slow and cumbersome that I decided there should be a better way to do that. Many videos about the knitting machine feature a tool called a "loom pick", which I did not now. It turned out to be a tool used in loom knitting. So I looked up loom knitting, and there was my answer! These knitting looms are far better suited to do special things like heels of socks or thumbs of mittens than the knitting machine itself.
I therefore adapted a design of a knitting loom on Thingiverse to be compatible with my circular knitting machine. This makes it possible to take your work off the machine and onto the loom and vice versa. This allows you to do the fast and easy things on the machine and the more special and complicated ones on the knitting loom.
For example, you can start a sock on the knitting machine from the hem to the ankle, bind off with waste yarn, and put it on the loom. On the loom, you make any type of heel you want, and bind off with waste yarn as well, so you can transfer your work back to the machine. You then finish the rest of the sock on the machine.
Ribbing is also easier to do on the loom than on the machine. So you can also start your sock with ribbing on the loom, do the rest of the leg on the machine, the heel on the loom, and the rest on the machine again.
The design is off course available on Thingiverse.
My favourite use of the loom is to make Dutch heels (also known as square heels) for socks which are for the largest part made on the knitting machine. A Dutch heel is not simply some more random area where you want it, but actually covers the different sides of the heel. This YouTube video shows how to make a Dutch heel on the knitting loom.