Want a simple yarn project for young kids that doesn’t require all the patience of knitting? Here’s a tutorial for French knitting: how to make a sweet little loom for almost nothing, how to cast on, knit, and cast off. It was a favourite activity of mine when I was a little kid and I know lots of other children who have loved it, too.

This would be a great activity for a classroom art lesson, or for rainy day fun with your own kids.

First of all guys, sorry again for the delay in this video/post! My family was hit with a nasty bug. Baby bear got it first with an isolated vomit for an otherwise happy little girl. Daddy bear got it next, with a day and a half of feeling unwell and feverish. And in a rare turn of events, Mummy bear got the lion’s share: tummy bug of all tummy bugs and a lot of bed rest. Thank God for a husband who was willing and available to look after the baby. At least I could stay in bed while sick, unlike the time I got food poisoning on my last night in the Philippines and had to catch multiple flights while feeling like I was dying.

But, I’m well enough to write out this tutorial, which is great because I think you’ll really like it and I’m so excited to share it with you.

What is French knitting?

If you’re not familiar with what French knitting is, it’s basically using a small loom to knit a tube of knitting, kind of like an icord but without the double-pointed needles. You can use a store-bought little loom dolly, or when I was a kid, we always made them out of toilet paper rolls and popsicle sticks. Also, when I was a kid, we always called them tomboys, not french knitters. French knitting wasn’t in the vocabulary, although these days that seems like the only thing I hear it being called. Since moving away from my home state of South Australia, I’ve learned that sometimes we say things weird, so maybe it’s a regional thing. Is it, or have you heard of it being called a tomboy too?

What you’ll need

For the Loom/Tomboy/French knitting dolly

The essentials

• a toilet paper tube
• four to five popsicle sticks
• tape (masking tape is better than sticky tape)

The extras

• Coloured paper or cardstock
• Markers
• Glue stick
• Craft scissors
• or, any other embellishment you wish to use. Some options are: paint, gift wrap, contact paper, yarn and hot glue, contact paper, stickers, glitter, googly eyes (beware of choking hazards if babies or toddlers are present).

For the Knitting

• At least one ball of 8/10/12ply yarn
• Optional: A loom band hook or a crochet hook (3.5 or 4mm) to help you make the stitches (I prefer to just use my finger!)
• Craft scissors
• Darning/tapestry needle

How to make your french knitting loom

Take your toilet paper roll and use your tape to fasten your popsicle sticks evenly around the rim, with about an inch or so of stick poking out.

Make sure they’re pretty secure and that’s your basic tomboy finished.

Next, lets decorate! For mine, I drew a little face on a strip of cream-coloured paper, and some arms and clothes on a bigger pink strip, and then glued them onto the tube. That’s nice and simple, but like I say, you can be as creative as you like with decorating these. Use some googly eyes, glue on some real buttons, paint it. Whatever you like.

How to knit with a French knitting loom

To cast on, tie a slip knot, also called a quick release not, in the end of your yarn.

Loop that onto one of the popsicle sticks and pull it tight.

Take the yarn and loop it around all the other sticks, so that the yarn runs round the inside of the toilet paper tube, not the outside. This knot and these loops we’ll call your stitches.

When you get to the first popsicle stick, place the yarn in front of it and pull the  first stitch over the yarn. This creates a new stitch, and the first stitch fall into the middle of the tube. Keep going all the way around. You can, if you prefer, use a crochet hook to pass the stitches over the sticks.

As you knit, you will end up with what look like a spider web of yarn going into the toilet paper tube.

Eventually you’ll end up with a nice thin icord of knitting coming out the bottom of your tomboy. You can make this as long as you like. To even out the stitches, pull on the end of the icord.

To join a new yarn simply tie the new yarn to the end of the old. In serious knitting, this is a bit of a no-no, but French knitting is all about getting kids into the fibre art world so I think tying knots is fine.

How to cast off

Cut the yarn, leaving a tail at least 10cm (4in) long. Thread the end of the tail through your darning needle and pass the thread through each of the live stitches on the loom, taking them off the loom as you do so. Pull the yarn tight. You may want to pass the needle underneath these stitches and tie a knot for added security.

Thanks for checking out this tutorial. I hope it helps you or some little ones you know to explore the fun of fibre arts. If you enjoyed this tutorial, please like the video and see my other videos on the knitkatpaddywhack YouTube channel.

Peace,

 

Kat