Round Looms & Rakes

One of the most common round looms in use is the Knifty Knitters. Both the looms that look "round" and the ones that are "long" can be used as round looms. While the terminology for the loom is "round" it can be a circle, triangle, oval, square, heart, etc. The actual shape isn't important, what is important is that all of the pegs be continuous with no starting or stopping point. The gauge of a round loom is determined by the distance between the pegs so that the further apart the pegs are, the larger the gauge. The nice thing about round looms is that you can use it for circular knitting and you can use it as a rake for flat panel knitting. The way you do the stitches is the same for both, the difference in knitting is that with circular, you continue to knit in the same direction for the entire piece and with flat panel, you knit back and forth.

Rakes are also available from many manufacturers. The difference between the two is that a rake is a single line and the pegs do have a starting and stopping point. You can only knit flat panel with a rake. Like a round loom, the gauge is determined by the distance between the pegs. If you have a knitting board, you can use half of it as a rake.

Video tutorials for each coming soon!

Numbering Pegs

To determine where you are in a pattern, you need to understand how pegs are numbered on the loom. Peg 1 is the first peg to the left of the anchor peg. You can find the anchor peg on the rim of your circular loom and sometimes on each end of the rake. The anchor peg on the right of the rake is the only one that has a peg to the left so peg 1 is the first peg to the very right on the top of the rake. The number for subsequent pegs for both round looms and rakes continues to the left so that peg 2 is to the left of peg 1, peg 3 is to the left of peg 2, and so on.


Circular Knitting

Using a round loom is one of the easiest ways to do circular knitting. This site assumes that you knit on the loom from right to left (clockwise). When you do, the pattern stays the same as a needle knitting pattern. While it's possible to knit from left to right (counterclockwise), it's not recommended because this will cause issues with the way your slants lean and different stitches may need to be substituted. Provocraft teaches this way in their books but as you advance in your knitting, you will find it to cause problems.

Different size looms are available for different sizes of hats, bags, scarves, socks, etc. In addition, different gauges of looms are available from large to extra fine. Adjustable-type looms are available from a couple of different manufacturers so that you can easily increase and decrease the size of the fabric as you knit.

Flat Knitting

Flat knitting can be done on both the round loom and the rake. As with circular knitting, knitting for the first row (and all odd rows) should be worked from right to left. When you turn for the next row (all even rows), you will work from left to right. Unlike circular knitting, the pattern does not stay the same as a needle knitting pattern. When you knit on a loom, the right side (RS) of the fabric is always facing you, unlike needle knitting. So you must convert the wrong side (WS) stitches which is usually the even rows. See converting patterns for more information. Again, different size looms are available as well as different gauges.