When we think of knitting we often think of long elaborate patterns and long needles. However neither of those have to be true anymore. Knitting is something where you can always choose the difficulty level. And nowadays you don’t even need to use needles to knit. All you need to knit is right in your hands… Or more exactly all you need to knit is your own hands.
Arm knitting is a really interesting technique that allows us to knit just by relying on our hands and arms. There’s no more reliable needle than our own limbs and while it might sound kinda weird at first it’s easier than it seems. Today we’ll take a look at how this works and provide you with an arm knitting yarn guide.
We are going with yarn because it’s the easiest fabric to use in our opinion, but what you learn here should work with almost any wool so don’t worry. With everything cleared up let’s take a dive into the world of arm knitting.
Let’s Focus on the Basics
With any project having the right tools is definitely the first step. Our needles for this type of knitting are already firmly attached to us, but we still need to find the right kind of yarn to make this work.
There are various types of yarn in the market, but the common agreement is that thick and chunky yarn is the best to learn the ropes. For premium projects Merino Roving and Homemoda Studio offer some of the most popular yarn balls. However if you are just learning the ropes more affordable options can be found in most crafts stores. What matters is that it’s giant yarn and that you feel comfortable with it. You’ll be wrapping this on your arms so make sure to pick something you can’t stand.
Once we have the yarn we can start and this means focusing on the slip knot. Regardless of your project the first thing you want to do is to hook your arm with the wool. This is the basis of everything and it’s not different from knotting a needle.
We understand that fine motions can be confusing to follow through words. So with that in mind we have a great video you can follow to check the motions as you read them. It’s simple but having that visual aid is always great.
Check your yarn and see if it unfurls properly. Once that is checked we need to make a loop over the tail of the yarn. We will pull the yarn we are going to use over the loop and then tighten it to make sure the slip knot is complete. Now we’ll take that knot and place it on your right hand while making sure that that the tail is closest to you and the working end farther from you.
Just like that we have turned your arm into a needle for knitting and it was no effort at all. From here on the overall process won’t be much different from regular knitting and you might even find it easier since this allows you to work with your hands. Nonetheless we’ll keep going to make sure we can cover all the bases.
Let’s begin knitting in earnest
With the hook ready we need to move onto how to stitch the yarn. Stitching is what gives knitting projects their unique look and it ultimately refers to the way the yarn is braided on top of itself. Regardless of what you want to do stitches will always be the core of the experience, and you can use this technique to knit just about anything.
Make a loop with the tail and leave it hanging in front of the loop. Hold the top of the loop with your right hand and pass your other hand through it to grab the working end of the yarn. Now pull that end and drop the yarn you were holding with your other hand. Once that is done take this new loop and put it over your right arm then pull on both ends to tighten it. Just like that we made a stitch, and while different projects will need more or less stitches the basics never change.
While that’s all you need to do for any project we’ll continue to make a finished product. So with that in mind you’ll need to cast 10 stitches to complete your project.
What we need to do now is to move the stitches from one arm to the other. Start with the stitch closest to your hand and place the working end of the yarn over your thumb. pull the stitch over your arm and through the working end. Take the new stitch and place it over your left arm. Now we’ll need to repeat this multiple times only one stitch is in your right arm.
With that done we are ready to start binding the yarn. Knit tow stitches towards your right arm and pull the first stitch over the second one. Now we repeat the process towards the left arm allowing us to start binding the yarn in the middle of our arms. Repeat this process until you can pull out the last loop from your arm.
You can now lay down your fabric and cut the working end of the yarn. Bring the end of the yarn through the last remaining loop and tighten it. This really is all you need to knit anything with your arms. Depending on what you want to make the amount of yard you’ll need at the end will vary. But ultimately all that is left to do is to seam your new project with a simple mattress stitch. This will allow you to close off the yarn and make sure it doesn’t unravel itself.
Arm knitting is that simple and by applying what you learned today you can easily sew anything without the need of a needle.