Knitting In French

Day 112: Knitting on a French loom is easy and fun, and is a quicker way to make "i-cords" than knitting with needles. For knitting larger pieces, I find that it is faster than the "throw" method, but slower than "picking," and since I'm a "picker," I don't often use a loom. Recently, there has been significant interest in creating "brain" caps (a cloche-style hat with i-cord sewn onto it to resemble the convolutions of a brain), not only from people who intend to march for science, but from those who just love zombies. You'll need a lot of i-cord for the project, so think about using a French dolly (right) instead of needles.

Many of the girls from my era made "i-cord" in grade school under the name of "spool knitting." I'm uncertain where the modern term originated, but since it's popular to affix "i-" to practically anything from the internet, I suspect it was started by someone who wanted people to believe they'd invented the art. Several brands and models of dolly are available at craft shops, but you can make your own the way we made them sixty years ago. Find a wooden sewing-thread spool and drive four or five brads into one end, evenly spaced and sticking up at least 1/2". Other than a hook or picker of some sort, that's all you need.

Run the end of your yarn down through the center of the spool from the top down. Make a counter-clockwise wrap around the first peg (brad), holding the tail of the yarn against the spool so there is tension on it. Continue making counter-clockwise wraps around each peg until you have two complete passes around the spool, keeping the second wrap above the first. Now take your picker or hook and insert it into the bottom wrap and pull it out toward you. Lift it up and over the upper wrap and drop it to the inside of the spool, leaving the upper loop (the second pass) on the brad. Repeat for the remaining pegs.

You should now have a single wrap on each peg. Make a second round of wraps as before, and then repeat the "picking" step. Each time you make a full circuit of the pegs, you will have added one row to your cord. Until the cord is long enough to stick out of the bottom of the spool, pull down on the yarn tail to draw it through the center. You'll quickly get the hang of it...wrap, pick, pull...wrap, pick, pull...and in no time at all, you'll have as much i-cord as you need.

The same process applies to larger French looms. The wooden one shown in this photo was meant for finer yarn, but I used worsted to show the principle. Again, many different styles are available: round, rectangular, adjustable or rigid. If you've tried to learn to knit unsuccessfully, you can achieve the same end result with a French loom.