Increasing on the knitting loom can be tricky business. You can just add a stitch on each end, which leaves a jagged edge or you can move your stitches around leaving an empty peg and simply start knitting onto that empty peg, however this leaves a hole in your work.
Hands down the best method it the M1 Method. Isela has a great tutorial on this at the Loom Knit site. click here to see it.if you are not familiar with this method. I’ll wait.. but come back because I have a way to make it just a bit easier.
The M1 a.k.a. lifted increase is genius! I loved it the minute I saw it! It allows you to increase without leaving a hole, and it is pretty much invisible. What’s not to love? There is however one problem that rears it’s ugly head once in a while with this technique. It is WAY tight, and nearly impossible to do some times.. sort of like me trying to get my jeans on after a couple weeks of holiday treats.. not pretty.
This question came up the other day when a reader emailed me about increases. I think she was ready to give up on the method all together and go for one of the other types, when an idea hit me.. loosen up!
If you find that the M1 method is getting too tight on your project here is what you can do. In the row prior to your increase wrap the yarn twice around the peg just before the increase point. Then on the increase row pull the extra wrap off before moving your stitches around and this will give you a little slack when making that new stitch! No it doesn’t leave a hole. In this case you needed a little wiggle room that’s all!
For now I am sticking to the written word. I will get some photos and get this all popped into a pdf for download later in the week. Today just got really short, really fast! I think you know what I mean!
Now.. I am off to get a session in on my elliptical, cause that’s the only way I am getting any wiggle room in my jeans!
Leave a Reply