I was browsing scarf patterns on the Provo craft website today. I found many that I wanted to try (like this one), but for the most part, their instructions are extremely vague. The one that I wanted to make explained the stitch to be knitted like this: "Start wrapping the yarn around loom pegs in a figure-eight pattern as shown in the instructions that come with the loom." My loom set came with no instructions! However, I believe the stitch they are referring to looks like this when wrapping the loom. I surfed around and found it on the Provo Craft site as well:
When you circle back to wrap the loom the second time, just go around the last peg once, like this:
To make the figure 8 stitch wrap across the width of the loom making a figure 8 as you go. When you get to the end, simply trace the yarn pattern back exactly as you made it the first time. You know have two loops on the loom, knit off bringing the bottom loop over the top loop with the Knifty Knitter hook. You now have one loop on each peg of the loom. Wrap the loom once using the figure 8 stitch pattern. Knit off again. Continue wrapping once and knitting off until your scarf is the desired length.
When finished, it looks a lot like the one over one stitch, except it is looser and it ends up being a flat panel rather than a circular tube knit.
The figure 8 is in the photo below. I used wrapped and knitted off 15 or so rows, so that you could see what it looks like with one strand of Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn.
That would make a perfect light weight scarf for spring. If I were going to make a winter scarf with the figure 8 stitch, I would use 2 strands of yarn as one to make the finished knit more dense. If I were going to use a natural fiber, like cotton that doesn't have the loftiness, I would use 3 strands of yarn at once.
The figure 8 stitch (or any stitch knitted across the width of the loom such as the ribbed or honeycomb) actually does work well for scarves because it looks the same on both sides and does NOT roll like a knit stitch does. The problem with knit stitches (ewrap or no wrap) is that they roll on the edges when knitting a flat panel.
I get a lot of questions as to whether it is possible to knit a scarf on a round loom. It is indeed possible. What you will end up with is a tube of knit that lays flat into two layers. You sew the ends together with a whip stitch. Long looms lend themselves to knitting scarves because there are more stitches you can do on them, however, it is possible to knit a scarf on a round loom too. It can be done with the e-wrap stitch or the no wrap stitch.
One of the idiosyncrasies of the Knifty Knitter looms is that the manufacturer, Provo Craft, is constantly changing the color of the looms. Patterns written for the pink loom, or yellow loom, may not coincide with the colors of your loom, because of the constant color changing. A better way to identify a loom is by the number of pegs it has. A pattern calling for a 24 peg round Knifty Knitter loom, for example, will always be correct for your 24 peg round loom. My Knifty Knitter loom that has 24 pegs happens to be blue, but yours may not be.
