Knitting on the cutting edge

Knitting a hat on a loom

It’s been cold here and I have such a delicate, pretty bald head.  Without hair, I never have to worry about messing up my do or getting hat head.  It does leave me with a heat radiator in the winter and an overactive solar panel in the summer.  Out of necessity I have a pretty fair collection of winter hats.  I was reading Children in the Corn’s blog several months ago and she posted about knitting winter hats on looms.  I had never heard of loom knitting but I have tried regular knitting and hated every minute of it (and I spent at least 4 minutes trying…most miserable 4 minutes of my life).  Anyhow, loom knitting looked pretty cool and I figured it was a new fangled thing.  I was dying to be at the cutting edge of knitting technology!  I found the round loom set by Knifty Knitter at several locations but I was especially happy to find it half price at a local craft store.  I picked up the 4 loom set for $7.50.  That prompted me to do a little research on loom knitting.  It turns out that loom knitting has been around for a long time , possibly since the 1300s .  Awesome!  I wanted to be a part this ancient art…no need to fool around with the modern stuff…new fangled knitting technology has no place in my home!  Well, you know how it goes.  There isn’t much new under the sun.  I thought I was getting into something new and cool, but instead, I am getting into something old and cool.

Hat knitted on a loom

I posted about my first knitting experience a few months ago.  These new looms are of the same type as the first one I tried but are much larger (and more powerful of course!).  I decided to use my new looms to make a black hat to keep my bald head warm this winter.  I used regular medium weight black yarn.  To make it thick enough to keep the cold out, I used two strands of yarn at a time (i.e. I just bought 2 skeins of yarn and double wrapped each post of the loom).  I knocked out my first hat in only 6 weeks.  It really only took me a few hours but, like all of my projects , I stretched it out over a sufficient period of time so as to keep my wife guessing.

My loom knitted hat...worn by a crazy man!

I am pretty happy with the way this hat turned out.  It is pretty warm which is requirement #1.  The other requirement is that it be cheap.  I seem to change hats like I change underwear..at least once every few weeks.  I just cannot seem to keep track of hats.  They always turn up again, but I hate going outside in the intervening days.  Since I can now whip out hats in 3 hours to 6 weeks, I no longer am worried about keeping track of my hats!

16 thoughts on “Knitting on the cutting edge

  1. I remember on other crafty thing you didn’t go for. Remember seed beads. I think that only lasted 2 minutes. Dad sure enjoyed it though.

  2. I must say a bald in winter just doesn’t seem like very much fun, giggle, but I guess there isn’t a lot to be done about it now is there? Well except to knit yourself a hat or two! Your’s is cool! Very manly color btw!

  3. Yay! Looks awesome Warren! Next time, try stringing 3 lines of double yard and then bringing the bottom one up over the top two and continue. Eric LOVES this. This is what he used to make his homemade helmet!! lol

  4. I knit the regular way, but the looms look interesting – plus it’s kind of hard to do hats on the straight needles and I’m terrible with knitting in the round or with cables.

  5. your photos made me laugh!

    I’m glad to see I’m not the only former farmer wife from a past life living in a 21st century male.

    Your knitting rocks!

  6. This hat has already served me well. I think the next one I make will take only a few hours. I started one for Abigail and it will be with different colored yarns. I am pretty happy with how it turned out and it is so much better for me to do it this way than with needles. My Mom mentioned another project using beads and I hated it…this is more my speed.

    Don, I never really thought of it as being an old-time farmers wife trapped in this Greek statue-like body, but you may be right. I’m glad to know there is someone else out there like me!

  7. You need to ask your wife first… but I would like to put you on my blog in the “swoon worthy” category. Sometimes we at the Six Pack let regular guys in (well, my husband is not only a member, he is the president) and I love your blog and the fact that you are such a… what is the word? MAN.

    So please ask your wife if you can be oogled and possibly googled by throngs of readers of the female persuasion in the near future.

    Cheers,
    June Cleaver

  8. Hey June – I’d be honored…my wife says to make it clear that I am taken, though she is always open to upgrading to a younger model!

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