When I was in elementary school, my mother took up the hobby of knitting, and she’s loved it ever since. The repetition seems to soothe her and relax her. In no time, it seemed, she had a great-looking scarf! However, when I first grabbed a pair of needles and some yarn, all excited about churning out project after project, I got frustrated after the first few rows! I had learned that day that knitting was a slow, long process that required hours and hours. I am by no means a patient person, so, disappointed, I gave up hope on knitting forever (or so it seemed!).

However, a few months ago, I was aimlessly wandering through the yarn section at the local craft store, longingly touching the luxuriously soft yarns, lamenting the fact that I would never have the patience to create beautiful things with them, when I stumbled upon knitting looms, Knifty Knitters to be exact. Now at first glance, these chunky, brightly colored plastic rings look like something you give a teething baby, but do not be fooled.

With these looms and some bulky-sized yarn, you will be able to whip up both round and flat projects with ease! There are so many to choose from, such the basic set of round looms pictured here, flat looms, and several specialty looms such as the flower loom. Each package comes with the loom(s), the tool you’ll need to maneuver the yarn, and a yarn needle. The only other thing you need is yarn! Be sure to use thick yarn as the looms tend to produce rather loose stitches.

The instruction booklet included with loom packages contains the directions for making the basic stitch, the e-wrap (more commonly known to regular knitters as the stockinette stitch). The looms can make other stitches, however, and detailed instructions for these can be found online. The booklet also usually contains instructions for some basic projects such as a hat or scarf. Once you’ve mastered these projects, there are countless others online, from hats to socks to pillows to bags to scarfs to… the possibilities are endless! The easiest thing about the projects online is that the Knifty Knitter looms are color-coded according to their size. So a pattern may call for the blue KK loom, the green KK loom, etc., making it extremely easy to find the right loom to use!

The things that attracted me most to the Knifty Knitters were definitely the ease of use and the speed compared to conventional knitting. Knitting looms are so easy to use, once you get the basic hang of it, you barely have to look at what you’re doing! It’s that simple. Also, to give you some idea of the speed of knitting with the knifty knitters, I can whip up an adult-sized hat in about two hours, or a baby hat in about 30 minutes!

So if you long to make cozy, handmade knitted crafts but don’t think you can, think again and check out Knifty Knitter knitting looms!