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| 34 inch blanket in progress on 36-peg large gauge round loom |
One of the biggest complaints regarding the common large gauge looms (aka, Knifty Knitter, Boye, Darice, etc.) is you can't make a baby blanket or afghan without seaming panels. Well, I just happen to have a solution to the problem: the peg-doubling technique. This technique makes it possible to create a flat panel that is double what is typically made on the round loom. In simplest terms, this is accomplished by:
- casting on two stitches per peg & one stitch on the last peg;
- knitting & shifting the top stitch to the previous peg;
- knitting the bottom stitch; and
- repeat across the row.
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| Completed 34 inch blanket made on the 36-peg large gauge round loom |
Double flat knit stitch
The stitch pattern used for this project is the double flat knit stitch (referred to originally as the 2-peg stitch in the Irish Washerwoman post), but other stitch patterns can be adapted to this technique, as well. The double flat knit stitch has become one of my favorite stitch patterns. I've used it on many different projects, including berets, scarves, dish clothes, etc. It makes a nice textured stockinette stitch that resists rolling without using purl stitches and works very well with the peg-doubling technique.
Loom knitted picot edging
The picot edging shown on the blanket in this blog post was done using the same 36-peg large gauge round loom on which the blanket was knitted. It is a very simple technique that uses two pegs to work an I-cord picot; bind off one stitch; then pick up and add a new stitch. It's done in a similar method to the picot bind off shown in my Patriot Pin post from two years ago.
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| Close-up of loom knitted picot edging |
Instructional links
I've been teaching this class on the Yahoo LoomClass Group for the past week and we have one more week to go. In the meantime, here are the links to help you learn how to make your own basic baby blanket:
The 20 minute video focuses on making a sampler square to practice the peg-doubling technique, while the pattern instructions detail how to apply the technique to make the actual baby blanket. A separate video is available that shows how to add the loom knitted picot edging
