Wooly Hats and knitting

[munchh]

I've been knitting since i was a kid, just not really at any sort of speed that was helpful, until now.

With this new toy i got for my birthday last month i can now knit a wooly hat it about 20 mins!

Its called an ADDI EXPRESS



It knits tubes and flat panels and once you get the hang of it, you can really knock some out, ive also done some snood type scarves, there are patterns for poncho type things, ive not got that far yet.





My local wool shop (yes we still have one) is run by a lady who is 87, she had never seen one of these and was amaized just how neat and how quick it is.

They are made in Germany and the only other place they seem to be big (going by youtube vids) is the USA.

This is a presant that really does just keep on giving, There is a smaller machine that you can make socks with and smaller panels or sleeves, so i recon i will have one of them too before long.

I wish i could be better at knitting by hand, but im not, this on the other hand is really fun.

[izzy_mack]

Looks pretty weird but sounds interesting Munchh, thanks for that, the little one takes my fancy as I,ve tried knitting socks but it takes so long and is so fiddely, I get bored, maybe this is the answer. Don't need wooly hats, an old lady of my acquaintence discovered we would wear them and knitted us so many, we've now got enough to last years! Wouldn't let her know about your device or we'd need an entire cupboard to store them.

I have made several crochet blankets, they are really warm, using up scraps of left over wool, maybe it would be as good and quicker to knit them using this instead.

[lightningxl]

Interesting piece of kit - all you need now is a sheep and a spinning wheel for true self sufficiency ....

[nickdutch]

I wanted to learn to knit, but i didn't get the hang of it, so a machine that can do all the hard work for me would be ideal. Could you make a cylinder, then cut it down one side to make a rectangle and then sew lots of rectangles together to make a scruffy sweater and stuff? Maybe... Interesting...... Now I just got to get me one and hey presto i will have a nice wooly suit in no time man!!! GROOVY!!!

[munchh]

Nick, it makes panels too, there is a switch which makes it stop and then you wind it back and forth to make panels, so yes you can makes lots more than just tubes.

Ive not had a go yet, but I will. Have a look on youtube, thats what I did before I bought one.

[ForgeCorvus]

Theres also Lo-tech versions that work like those French-knitters from when I was a kid... Only bigger.

Several different makes available, heres the page on Amazon

Oh, and there seem to also be long looms for knitting flat things, including this Monster


I'm just getting into textiles

[Decaff]

Ooohh...... I like that, very much!!!! I can knit but never tried socks which look very complicated but this is genius.

I'm supposed to be finishing the bathroom updating but I have aches in places I didn't know I had... So having some down time today

[nickdutch]

If I was to play with a lower cost loom I might have to get to specsavers first. i was positively getting eye strain just watching a demonstration video

EDIT: Just been on ebay and have seen these things

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Set-4-Size- ... 3cefbd6969


Just type in "knitting loom" into the ebay search and all sorts comes up. Reckon I'd have to do a lot of demo video watching before I can get my head around how to use them though. its a completely different way of thinking for my poor little brain

[nickdutch]

One more quick question: How long do you think it would take to make something with one of the lower cost knitting looms? Lets say a scarf, a snood and the like?

Sure if I was to get dedicated it might take me longer to do fancy things like getting sleeves onto a jumper and doing sock heels and the like, not to mention fingers on gloves, but hypothetically, if I got kinda obsessed, what kind of time are we talking about?

If its 30 minutes on an addi for a hat, whats it on a "normal" loom?

I mean, I love the idea of spending more money I haven't got on toys, but if i can get the cheaper one and get a similar result and then maybe in the shorter term, it makes more sense to play with a cheaper set?

[munchh]

I see where your going Nick, I cant answer that as I went for the easy option, but after seeing these things used I just didnt bother with the others, my mum has them but to my knowledge never uses them because she can knit at quite some speed. Ive been trying to find the video j saw where they were using the small (proffesional) addi to make socks, when they came to the heel they stopped going round and round, instead went back and forth until the heel was big enough then carried on round and round, it was geneous.
I know the looms are bombproof and you could make them yourself, but I just wanted to be able to make hats a quick as I could, when the horrible flu finaly goes away I will have a go at making panels, my sone has told my hd wants a knitted throw for his bed, sounds like something I can do.