Warm Adult Hat on a Round Loom

Well it is officially fall around here!  Cooler temps, crisp autumn days, leaves starting to change colors, pumpkin flavors appearing in almost every coffee and baked good across the land...and soon thoughts will turn to keeping warm and dressing warm.  If you are going to be warm outside, you're gonna want and nice warm hat and scarf! (scroll to the bottom of the post for my BRAND NEW video tutorial!!!)

My dad, out walking his Golden Retriever Bella and wearing the hat and scarf I made him

A few years back I made some youtube videos about how to make a hat on round knitting loom for beginners. 

Looms can be fun... AND addicting. 

The videos have became incredibly popular, even more so between now and Christmas time. Making a hat and matching scarf can be fun, (addicting actually), and can easily become perfect presents to customize and make for your favorite people!  The great thing about the Knifty Knitter looms is that the technique for the smallest loom will work exactly the same on the bigger ones.  I recently made a new video, featuring how to make an adult-sized hat on the round loom (see below for video link).  Looms by the way, tend to come in a pack with four sizes:

You can find this 4-pack of looms in most craft sections of regular stores, or at craft stores for around $15

Hat wise, blue is for dolls and preemies, red is for toddlers, green is for teens and small adult heads, and yellow is for big hair or larger heads.  You can also use these same looms to make easy tube scarves with tassels.  If you have never shopped for yarn,you will find that the thick and fluffy yarn is pretty expensive.  I show a trick in my newest video on how to get a warm hat using two strands of some less pricey yarn, namely Red Heart yarn, which is available in almost every color of the rainbow, and found in even the local grocery store.  I was able to make a new hat for my dad using these looms, and I give you a start to finish tutorial on how to do that. Click play now for your personal making a hat on a loom lesson!




I thought I would pass this along now at the beginning of the season so you will have time to make yourself a few warm hats and scarves before the cold really gets here.  Plus if you get addicted (be forewarned! Once you learn how to loom knit you will want to make something for everyone you know) friends and loved ones could be blessed with warm things to wear.  

scarves and hats for all... even your dollies!

I have had people let me know via youtube comments that they also make hats for the homeless, and preemie babies in the NICU with these same techniques!  How cool is that!  Do you loom knit?  Let me know if you try these and feel free to show me projects you have completed.  Up next, I will try to make a video tutorial on how to make a cute Santa hat with soft white trim!  Enjoy.

Christmas in August - Start making gifts now (scarves)

In continuation with my last post about making hats on a circular loom, another great thing you can make is tubular scarves.  I know that sounds like something Bill and Ted might say on their most excellent adventure (Yah,that's totally tubular Ted), but these little round looms are perfect for making warm, colorful scarves to go with your hats you are making for friends and family.  You knit them "in the round" on these circular looms, which produces a "tube" of finished scarf, that wen laid flat will become a doubly thick and warm scarf.

You can use a simple Red Heart Supersaver Yarn in any color or varying color scheme, or if you get a fancier, fluffier yarn, such as the Rainbow Boucle yarn found at Joann's stores that will make an elegant, softer, feminine scarf (you can see this softer scarf in the middle picture above).  The technique on the looms is the same, so experiment and see what you like the best.  Here are links to my three youtube videos on how to make a scarf from start to finish on a round loom.

First is how to cast on and start your scarf



You can make an entire scarf with one skein of Red Heart yarn thread.  One color the whole way and you are fine.  If you want a little advanced tip on how to change colors along the way, then part II is for you.  (By the way, If you don't want to change colors, then skip to part three, finishing off and adding tassels).



The trickiest part of any scarf is how to take it off the loom.  The instructions for the loom don't even COME with how to do this.  I had to search many youtube videos to figure out how to do it the most efficiently and easiest, and then I tried to make my instruction video very clear and take things slow.  One lost loop in this stage, after hours or days of making a scarf can unravel your whole project.  Those who say think knitting is only a docile and quaint activity have no IDEA how very bad ass it really is.  It's safe to say I would have the exact same amount of stress dismantling a bomb as I would taking a yarn project off a loom! (No no.. cut the red wire NEXT to the blue wire... you get what I mean).  Here in the last video is how to not only successfully take your project off the loom, but how to add decorative matching tassels as well.



After following both my tutorials, you will have some wonderful matching hats and scarves to give to friends and family this holiday season.

Christmas in July - Start making gifts now! (Hats)

I know it's hard to imagine with the blue sky and hot sun blazing overhead, but Christmas is less than 6 months away.  With finances a little tighter for everybody these days, homemade gifts are on the rise. With some inexpensive pretty yarn and a little know how, you could make some easy hats and scarves for the people you love!

The only thing you need after that is a set of looms and some time, and (hint hint) if you start early, like say  NOW, in the summer, you will have all of your Christmas gifts done by winter time.

How my addiction to yarn started:
(otherwise known as "Confessions of a Yarn-aholic" )

A few years back I was over at my Mother-in-law's house and she was making a scarf on a little round loom.  I was intrigued.  She gave me an extra loom and a skein of yarn and I'm telling you, I couldn't put the thing down.  Soon I had a  5 foot tube of yarn and no idea how to get it off the loom.  She was left handed and I was right. She lived about an hour away and couldn't really tell me over the phone.  Reading the instructions for the loom only included a hat.  I went on youtube to try and find out how to do it, and had the hardest time finding clear instructions from start to finish. There were some that said how to cast on, others how to cast off, and most were very confusing, out of focus, and hard to hear.  After figuring out what actually worked I decided to make some youtube videos of my own teaching people how to make at first a hat, the easier of the two, and then a scarf.  The key was showing something from start to finish. 

You can get a 4-pack of looms for $16 or less (Knifty Knitter Round Loom 4-pack) online and the four sizes are great. It also comes with a loom hook and a plastic needle. The tutorial I made shows the example with the smallest sized loom, but the techniques can be applied to all sized looms, depending on your needs and the size of the heads your are making things for.  Here are the four sizes and what they are good for:

Blue Loom  (24 pegs) - Makes preemie or American girl doll-sized hats

Red Loom (31 pegs)  - Makes child-sized hats from about 2T-6T

Green Loom (36 pegs) - Makes teen and adult-sized hats

Yellow Loom (41 pegs) - Makes extra large hats for adults with bigger heads or extra hair.


Here is a link to my you tube video on how to make a hat from a round loom.  It is in two parts and walks you step by step, from casting on your yarn to completing the hat with a pom pom.  Again the tutorial is for a doll-sized hat but you can get any sized loom and make the right sized hat you need.  By the way, the tutorial shows me using only one strand of 4-ply yarn.  That is mostly for demonstration of technique.  If you are making a hat for warmth, you will need two strands (meaning buy two skeins of the same kind of yarn), held together at the same time and wrapped at the same time to get a strong, warmer hat with no holes in it.

Part I: 


Once you make the brim of the hat, do a few more rows, cinch up the hat, add a pom pom for the ultimate cuteness factor, and va-la, you just knitted yourself a hat!

Part II:




In the next post I will talk about how to make beautiful scarves with these exact same looms.  Not only that I can teach you how to change colors!  That means you could make a Santa hat with a white border, red hat, and white pom pom.  That means you could make hats and scarves in your favorite teams' colors.  I love that you can tailor colors and themes to fit whoever you are making the items for.  Personalized gifts cost only a little bit of time and very little money, but the end result for a gift is awesome!  Thanks so much and happy knitting.

PS.. Just as a warning!!  These round looms became what I like to call the "gateway drug" to crochet.  It was from these looms (well, actually the long rectangular looms) where I was making a blanket and wanted to do a finished edge, then taught myself crochet on you tube and now I can't stop crocheting.  Like seriously, I have 7 giants bins stuffed full of yarn  and a ton of crocheting projects in the works.  So I warn you, don't start all this loom fun without understanding the risks that you might fall in love with all things yarn related!