Affiliate links may be included for your convenience. View our privacy and affiliates policy for details.
Loom knitting is a fun way to get the look of knitting without knitting needles. To me it’s the slowest form of “knitting” (with knitting machines being the fastest and regular hand knitting at least feels like it’s faster) but if you’re not getting the hang of knitting with needles or just want to try something different, give loom knitting a try.
What is a Knitting Loom?
The most common knitting looms are round plastic devices with pegs sticking out of the top. The smallest ones generally have 22-25 pegs, while larger models have 36-40 pegs or more. Usually the pegs have a little groove on the outside that makes working the stitches easier.
You can also find wooden models with different shapes, large plastic knitting looms that look like an S, even pieces that can be joined together to make a loom just the size you need for your project.
Some knitting looms have a peg on the side as well, which you can use as a visual marker for the end of the round. You can also slip a stitch marker on the first peg before you cast on to mark the beginning of the round.
They often come with a little pick you can use to grab the stitch that’s small enough to fit into the groove in the peg. If yours didn’t come with one (or you lost it, which happens all. the. time.) you can use a small crochet hook, or just your fingers.
What Yarn Can I Use for Loom Knitting?
You can use any yarn you like in terms of fiber, and somewhat in terms of weight as well, depending on the look you are going for.
The thickness of the pegs can vary somewhat, making some knitting looms better for thicker or thinner yarn.
Here I used a 24 peg knitting loom, starting from the bottom using a single strand of worsted/medium/weight 4 yarn, then two strands held together, a strand of bulky/chunky/weight 5 yarn and finally super bulky/weight 6 yarn.
Generally I like to use two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, or bulky yarn on my circular knitting looms.
This little wooden one has thinner pegs, though, so it works just fine with a single strand of worsted weight yarn.
If you’re trying to decide if a yarn works well with your loom, just try it for a few rounds, pull it off the loom, let it relax and take a look at the fabric. If you’re happy with it, that’s a good yarn to use.
How to Start Loom Knitting
The most common way to work loom knitting is using all of the pegs and working in the round, which makes a tube.
To start, leave a few inches of yarn hanging if your loom doesn’t have a starting peg on the side. If it does, wrap the yarn around the peg a couple of times, or work a slip knot and stick it on the peg. After a couple of rounds, release the yarn and let it fall to the inside of the loom.
The yarn should start coming up from behind the first peg, with the yarn end off to the left and the working yarn at the right.
Wrap the yarn around the peg from back to front and to the back again. This is known as an e wrap cast on. Don’t pull tight on the yarn, but you want it to kind of hold in place on the peg. If you have experience with knitting or crochet we’re kind of going for the same feel, not too tight or too loose.
Wrap in this same manner around each peg all way around.
If you have a loom that’s not round, you do it the same way, just take the yarn over the gap to work on the other side.
Once you’ve wrapped every peg once, wrap them again in the same manner.
Knitting Stitches on the Loom
Now, starting with the first peg you wrapped, take your loom knitting tool (or crochet hook, or fingers) and grab the lower loop.
Take it up and over the second loop and up over the top of the peg. That first stitch will come out a big loop because there’s nothing holding it, but pull on the yarn end to make it fit snugly but not too tightly on the peg.
Work each stitch around in the same manner until you get back to the beginning stitch.
Wrap the pegs again as before.
Continue in this same manner until your piece is the desired length. This will give you a fabric of slightly twisted v shapes that’s very similar to stockinette stitch in knitting.
How to Purl on a Knitting Loom
Of course making a ton of stockinette stitch in a tube is great, but what if you want a different texture? You can also make stitches that look more like purl stitches on your knitting loom.
Prepare to knit in the same way as always, but instead of pulling the bottom loop up and over the top loop, stick your tool through the top loop and grab the bottom loop.
Pull the bottom loop up through the top loop and take both off the peg.
Insert the loop that’s on your tool (what was the bottom loop) back onto the peg.
You may find it easier to pull the loops off and put the loop back on with your fingers instead of the tool.
Before you work the last stitch of the round, wrap the first peg of the next round to anchor the stitch.
Because the front/outside of your work is always what you’re knitting on, you can now make something that looks like garter stitch by knitting a round a purling a round.
Or you can make ribbing by alternating knits and purls across a round — just make sure the columns always line up as you go. You could also mix knits and purls across the round to make other stitch patterns.
Changing Colors
Just like changing colors when knitting with needles or a knitting machine, all you have to do to change colors is to drop the old yarn and pick up the new one, leaving a couple inches of tail from each ball to weave in later.
Do this at the beginning of a round, so that you have finished all the stitches in the first color. Wrap each peg with the new color and continue on as usual.
Likewise you can work colorwork on a loom in the same way you would work stranded knitting with needles.
Knitting Flat on a Knitting Loom
Did you know you can also use a knitting loom to knit flat pieces? Begin by working a set of e wraps as above across as many pegs as you want to use.
Instead of looping the second time, just take the yarn across the front of the last peg you wrapped.
Work a knit stitch as before: loop on the needle goes up and over the yarn across the front of the peg.
Work all the stitches across, then repeat in the same way. The stitches don’t have the little twist of stitches worked in the round because you aren’t twisting the yarn to wrap the pegs.
Want to purl while working flat? Take the yarn in front of the peg, but this time make sure it’s below the loop on the peg.
Go through the loop on the peg, grab the yarn, pull it through and take both off the peg as before.
Make sure the loop from the strand of yarn is the one that goes back on the peg.
Here again you can make ribbing or other stitch patterns using flat knitting on the loom. This sample is a bit of ribbing worked on super bulky yarn.
Increasing and Decreasing
When working loom knitting flat, you can also increase and decrease on the sides.
To increase, just work an e wrap on the peg to the left (or right, depending on which side of your stitches you’re on) of the stitches, then knit it as normal.
To decrease, take the last stitch on the side you’re on and put it on the hook next to it that has a stitch on it. Work this like a regular knit or purl stitch.
This little swatch shows flat knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing.
Binding off Loom Knitting
When you’re done with your project, there are a few ways to get knitting off the loom that will vary depending on what the project is.
You can cut the yarn, leaving a long tail, thread it onto a yarn needle, pick all the stitches off the pegs and put them on the yarn, then pull tight. This is how you’d close the top of a hat, for example. Or a loom knit pumpkin, as shown.
If you want the end of your knitting to lie flat, as with the end of a scarf, you can put the stitches onto knitting needles and graft or otherwise sew the ends closed. Refer to my post on how to finish the ends of a machine knit scarf to see options that use knitting needles, crochet hooks or none of the above.
And that’s most of what you need to know to practice loom knitting or try some loom knitting patterns! It’s really easy and I hope you give it a try.
