Loom Knitting a Beanie Hat

Welcome to my blog! At least once a week, I am going to share loom knitting ideas, wine cork crafts and other fun and easy projects. I just recently started knitting on a loom and I have no other knitting experience. I started right before Thanksgiving, and I ended up making all of my Christmas gifts this year! I have never thought of myself as an "artsy" or overly creative person, but I have found a new hobby that I really enjoy. I have also been taking orders for friends, so I'm getting a little extra cash as well.

For this week, I want to talk about the basics of knitting on a round loom. I bought my set at Michael's for about $10 and it came in a set of four. The beautiful thing about craft stores is that there are ALWAYS coupons! I do have the Michael's and Joann's apps on my phone, but a quick Google search never hurts ( I take this into account no matter where I'm shopping). I got it 40% off at the click of a button on my phone. 

This is the round loom set:

For knitting a beanie style hat for an adult, use the orange one. (36 pegs).  Other materials that you will need include yarn, scissors, plastic knitting needle and a crochet hook. The needle and hook were included in my loom set. I think using bulky or super bulky yarn creates the nicest hats and I also think it is the easiest yarn to use.

The first step is to knot the yarn around the anchor peg. This will keep the yarn in place as you begin to knit. Take the yarn and put it through the circle so that it is inside of the loom. Starting to the left of the anchor peg, wrap the yarn around each peg clockwise. Wrap the yarn a second row until all pegs have two loops on them. It will look like this:

The most important thing is that the yarn is on the inside of loom. If it is not, you will not be able to knit for long! It will knot and get tight and you will be frustrated. Now you simply start at the peg to the right of the anchor and hook the bottom row over the top. Continue clockwise until you have one strand of yarn on the pegs again. That is your first row. Wrapping the yarn and hooking the bottom over the top until you have a few inches of rows completed. Once you have them done, pull the original loops from the bottom and re-hook them onto the pegs. Take the bottom and hook it over the top. This creates a brim for the hat, and you can experiment with different size brims. My first hat I did not make a brim, but the bottom part would continuously roll back anyways. If you don't put a brim on it, the hat will roll back! After the brim is completed, continue on with your rows. Once the knitted rows reach around 7 inches (depending on the size of the hat you want), it's about done!

To close the hat, pull about 15 inches of yarn and cut. Tie the end of it to your knitting needle. Next, take the needle and put it through the first peg, removing it from the peg. Continue on clockwise until the hat is free from the loom.

Once your hat is off the loom, pull it straight up tightening it together. There will be a hole at the top. Place the needle through the hole and turn your hat inside out. Sew back and forth a few times until the hole is gone. Knot off the yarn and trim any left over. 

Congratulations! You now have an awesome homemade hat!