I don't use needles when I knit. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Well you can do it. In fact it is so easy, really anyone can do it. My 9 year old knows how to do it, she just hasn't developed the skill of sticking with a project until it is finished yet. I know some adults who have a hard time with that. I have a couple of half done diddles laying around here somewhere. Up until last October we have used looms to knit with. I still use them on occasion but I bought a sweater knitting machine and have been teaching myself to use it since October so I am taking it a day at a time. It has been a very end of year so I will finish the project hanging on my knitting machine very soon. I'm currently working on an throw blanket for the living room. I haven't graduated to doing the sweater just yet. Here is a photo of a quick little tube scarf I did on a small round loom before Christmas. It makes a quick neck warmer for those in between days, cold enough for something but not enough for the full wrap.
It goes great with my brown down vest too, which I can still wear even in January. Have you noticed me mentioning on other pages that it hasn't been cold yet this year? All you need for this scarf is one small round knitting loom, a knitting hook, and red and green homespun yarn. The small loom comes with basic instructions about how to knit on the loom. I will post more about this in the future but assuming you have read through the instructions that came with your loom, you simply cast onto the round loom.
Cast on by e-wrapping behind the first peg and around the front of the first peg the go behind the 1st wrapped peg to wrap behind the 2nd peg (wrapping to the right) and in front and repeat all the way around until you come back to the first peg you e-wrapped originally. Now you have one row e-wrapped all the way around one time.
Wrap around one more time to provide yourself two fully wrapped rows. Now hold your wrapping yarn in place so it will not unravel while you are working. While pinning down the yarn with one finger, use your hook to pull the bottom wrap on each peg over the top wrap of each peg. Once you have pulled all the bottom wraps over the second wraps you will see that you now have only one row left on each peg all the way around. Your wrapping yarn is secure now that the last peg you wrapped with it has been pulled over.
Begin to e-wrap all the way around with your yarn again.
Once you have wrapped another row, begin to pull the bottom wrapped loop over the top one again, just as you did the first time.
Continue wrapping 1 row and pulling over one row over and over again. You will begin to see your knitting is gathering length with each row as is falls down the inner circle of your round loom.
Decide for yourself how many rows of each color (your pattern) you will use.
When you are ready to begin a new color, simply cut off one color and tie to it the next color and keep wrapping and pulling the loops over. Once you have knit the entire length of the scarf you desire you are ready to remove your project from the loom.
Roll the yarn around the width of the loom 3 or times to be sure you have enough yarn to sew off with and then cut the yarn.
Thread the end of the wrapping yard with the large needle that came with your loom.
Begin to sew backwards in and out of each loop until you come back around to your first stitch.
Sew through your first stitch again and then gather all the ends together as if closing up the opening to the tube and tie off the yarn.
Cut it with about 4 inches left and weave the four inches of leftover yarn into the tube of your scarf.
Go to the beginning/opened end of the scarf and sew in and out of the end of the scarf all the way around the edge until you meet with your first stitch and tie off the same way as before, gathering the ends together to close off the tube of the scarf. Cut with extra yarn and weave into the tube of the scarf not to be seen.
Now you have a tube scarf of your own pattern for the holidays. Youtube has many videos you can watch on how to cast on or cast off (bind off) while loom knitting. Simply go to www.youtube.com and search under the subject of "loom knitting" and you will find that many people have posted help videos. Some times it helps when you are starting a new project to watch someone do it.
UPDATE: (2016) It's been several years and I am still using this scarf every winter and getting compliments on it. Handmade knits are so long lasting it's a true money saver and you get exactly what you want.