I have been recovering from a cold in the last few days. While I was ill, I had just enough energy to play around with spool knitting. I used the spool knitter to make a few things for Florabunda. The hat and scarf were made with a four pin knitter. The mittens were made with a six pin knitter and were a little more difficult to make. I hope to have instructions for making Florabunda’s hat and scarf and a few other things with a spool knitter in a month or so.

Here is a photo of Florabunda in her new felt coat and her new knitwear.

loom knitting for small dolls knitting for small dolls

In May I experimented with loom knitting and showed you some of the results. I used flower looms to make knit hats for my small dolls. The hats were easy to make and I thought that they turned out well.
When our local community center offered a class on beginning knitting, I decided to take it to see if I could learn to knit with knitting needles.
I have had two classes so far and I can knit, pearl, and cast on. I know one method of casting off.
The advantage that I can see for using needles instead of a loom is the flexibility for the size and shape of projects.  The disadvantage is that I have a more difficult time keeping the correct tension  on the yarn as I knit.
I have several more classes to complete. I hope to eventually be able to knit one of the sweaters for eighteen inch dolls that Joan Hinds includes in her doll pattern books. If I’m able to make sweaters for eighteen inch dolls, then I may be able to knit sweaters for small dolls.
So far I haven’t produced anything that’s worth the trouble to photograph. If I ever knit anything for dolls that I like, I will show it to you.

New Things knitting for small dolls

When my cousin and I were children, thread still came on wooden spools. One time she had a contraption made from a wooden spool and four nails spaced evenly around the hole in the spool. By looping the yarn correctly, she was able to knit herself a thin belt. I was fascinated by spool knitting, but I didn’t try it as a child.
When I became interested in loom knitting, the first thing I tried was spool knitting. Today thread comes on plastic spools. It would be difficult to make a spool knitter from a plastic spool. Fortunately there are many commercially made spool knitters available for purchase. If you are interested in this technique, remember that it is sometimes called French knitting and sometimes called corking.
To make my rug, I chose a spool knitter with four pegs that were fairly close together. I used Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn in rose pink. I knitted a string about 42 inches (107cm) long. Technical support (husband) referred to my knitting as a snake sweater.

I shaped the string into an oval rug.

I used the yarn ends of the knitted string, extra matching yarn, and a plastic needle to sew the rug together on the back.

Here is the rug next to my doll bed.

The rug is a nice place to leave bedroom slippers.

If you or a child in your life is interested in spool knitting check this video on YouTube. Spool Knitting 101

loom knitting for small dolls, New Things knitting for small dolls

I never learned how to knit. I blamed my grandmother for years, because she did not know how to knit, and so she could not teach me. My grandmother did know how to crochet, but neither my mother nor I ever learned. I really cannot blame my grandmother.
Because I have seen so many people having fun knitting lately, I decided to teach myself to knit. I have a fairly slow learning curve. After doing some online research I decided that round loom knitting would be an easy way for a slow learner like me to get started.
I wanted to do small projects for my small dolls. I ended up using flower looms to make small hats.

The Nifty Knitter Flower Loom is made like other Nifty Knitter looms and is easy to use. The pegs are wide and have enough space between them to require a thick yarn. I used Nature’s Choice organic cotton.

To make a hat with a smaller knit stitch I used the middle size round loom from the Clover Flower Loom set. This loom is not made for the type of knitting that I wanted to do so it was more difficult to use. The knit stitch that it produces is more in scale with my small dolls. I used Sugar’n Cream Twists and Bernat Bamboo for the two hats with small knit stitches.

Twinkle, Tender Heart, and Floribunda model the three hats.

loom knitting for small dolls, New Things knitting for small dolls