Fleur-de-lis Jack

 Happy Halloween

from Loom Lore!

My grandson's jack-o-lantern was carved as part of the local Boy Scout's Pumpkin Carving Contest - thus the "fleur de lis" face.

This is "Trixie", the little witch with a "magnetic" personality. She was knitted on a little spool loom as my contribution for the October Halloween Fridge Magnet Competition on the Yahoo Spoolknitter Group. 

Baby Gran Afghan

About a year ago I taught a class in Yahoo's LoomClass where the featured project was a motif I designed called the Baby Gran Squares. Today I want to share with you a beautiful afghan that Swapna Biswas, one of my star students, has recently completed. Swapna describes the afghan as follows:

• I used Brenda's Baby Gran Square for the 24-peg large gauge round loom
• Each completed motif was a 3.75 inches square
• 165 squares were used (11 squares wide X 15 squares long)
• With a crocheted border added, the afghan is 4 ft. wide X 6 ft. long

Here are additional pictures of Swapna's "loomchet" afghan:

Individual motifs ready for joining

Close-up view of afghan

 

 

 
Crocheted border

Great job, Swapna!! Thank you for sharing your project pictures.

Patriot Pin

The Patriot Pin is a quick-knit just in time for July 4th. So simple to make, but very festive! Here's how:

Size: 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter

Materials

• Knifty Knitter Flower Loom
• Loom pick
• Red Heart Super Saver yarn in red, white and blue
• Crochet hook or yarn needle to secure yarn tails
• Small sequin star or button for center

Note: Pin was worked in a counterclockwise direction in the round using one strand of yarn with the indicated colors and the 12-peg loom. The direction you work in really doesn't matter, but is stated here for clarification of the bind off explanation.

Instructions

• Cast on using the drawstring method (see Techniques in right sidebar).
• Rnd 1: Flat knit all pegs.
• Rnd 2-3: Change to white; flat knit both rounds.
• Rnd 4: Change to red; flat knit all pegs.
• BO using an I-cord Picot method as follows:
  1.) Bring the working yarn from the last peg knitted and wrap it across the next two pegs as pictured below.
  
  
  
  Flat knit the bottom loops over the working yarn on these two pegs.
  
  2.) Reach below the first peg knitted and lift the strand of yarn onto the peg; knit off. (This removes the gap between the last row and the picot bind off edge.)
  
  3.) Continue wrapping the working yarn across both pegs and knitting off three more times. After completing the last I-cord stitch, the working yarn will be at the second peg.
  
  4.) Lift the loop from the second peg, place it on the first peg and knit the bottom loop over the top loop. Return this loop to the second peg.
  
  (Note for peg-1 only: After binding off peg-1, reach down and lift the base of the I-cord stitch and place it back on peg-1. This will be used when knitting the last I-cord picot stitch at the end of the row.)
  
  5.) Bring the working yarn from behind the current peg, wrap across the current peg and the next peg.
  
  
  
  Flat knit the bottom loops over the working yarn on these two pegs.
  
  6.) Repeat steps 2-5 until one loop remains on peg-12. Cut the working yarn and pull the ending yarn tail through the last loop. Use a crochet hook to fasten the ending I-cord stitch into bind off edge.
  
• Cinch the drawstring cast on tightly; knot to secure and trim.
• Add the sequined star or star shaped button to the center. (Note: I found my sequined stars near the scrapbook section at Michael's.)  

 Now you are ready to attach a pin to the back and wear with pride!! 

May you have an awesome 4th of July!!!

 

Quick can koozies

Whether you call it koozie, coozie, cozie, kozie, huggie or holder, this is the perfect warm weather project for the loom knitter. Made using Red Heart Super Saver Economy yarn on the 24-peg large gauge round loom (Blue Knifty Knitter), the basic project works up in about an hour or so from start to finish. While I used patriotic colors, any combination of colors, both variegated or solids could be used. These could also be embellished with duplicate stitch embroider to personalize or add a team logo.

Cotton is a wonderful absorbent fiber, but I prefer using 100% acrylic instead of cotton for the koozies. One of the reasons is the acrylic knit dries more quickly than cotton without the worry of mold or mildew. Also, wet circles on tables and other surfaces where cans/bottles are set results from condensation running down the sides to the bottom of the can. The knit can koozie hugs the can preventing the moisture from running to the bottom - instead it is disbursed through the knit stitches in the koozie and evaporates evenly around the side surfaces of the can. Cotton is absorbent and will not allow the moisture to evaporate as quickly as the acrylic, so the cotton will remain damp longer.

Anatomy of a can koozie

To reduce the bulk on the bottom of the koozie, a single stand of yarn is used for the drawstring cast on (see Loom Knitting Techniques in the right sidebar) and the first three rows. A second strand is added on row four and the remainder of the project is knitted using two strands as one. A garter stitch pattern is used in rows six to eleven to create the rim along the bottom of the can. After completing the bottom garter stitch rim, the body of the koozie is done completely in a flat knit stitch. I usually close the drawstring cast on edge sometime after row fifteen or sixteen. As you can see, the bottom begins to take shape:

To match the bottom rim, the top rim is finished using six more rows of garter stitch pattern and then a basic flat panel bind off is done along the top edge. Below is a bottom view of the completed can koozie:

 

This koozie will not only fit on a 12 ounce drink can, but it also fits many brands of water bottles. Below is a picture of the koozie on a 20 ounce Vitaminwater Zero bottle. 

 

Fresh off the press, the pattern can by accessed in the Pattern Box on the right or by clicking the link: Quick Can Koozie. 

Here's is a little trivia - just in case you are in doubt about the spelling of "koozie", which seems to be anybody's guess. I had seen it spelled so many different ways that I had to research this one before deciding on which spelling to use. I googled it four different ways: cozie, coozie, kozie & koozie. Here are the results:

• cozie: This resulted in assorted images, a few of the things like I made (beer bottle covers, toaster cover, etc.) but most relate to other topics as a derivative of the word "cozy". However, the most disturbing was how the Urban Dictionary defines cozie: "An underage girl who loves dressing like a ho (hozy) but her main focus is trying to get cozy with older men; they can usually be found in groups of 2 or 3 sitting at the bus stop but never catching the bus. Example: Check out those cozies sitting at the bus stop. They must be 13 years old!!"
• coozie: Google asked did I mean "koozie". However, this is a viable alternate spelling since the can & bottle covers come up in abundance in the images section.
• kozie: Kozie chrbty (Slovak, literally "goat ridges") are a mountainous area in Slovakia, part of the Carpathian Mountains, where uranium ore may be found. The images section show smiling goats, mountains, a few things I had rather not have seen, and only one can cover.
• koozie: Wikipedia actually has an entry for Beer koozie and there is a site dedicated just to the Beer Koozie.  Also, just about all the images for this spelling display the can & bottle covers, so, this is why I decided on the "koozie" spelling as the one of choice.

Who knew knitting can/bottle covers could be so educational?