(upbeat music)
- Loops™ yarn is a Loops & Threads yarn
exclusively from Michaels.
This yarn is made for hand knitting
without needles or hooks, just your hands.
The yarn has pre-stitched in loops like these,
and they don't go anywhere.
They don't have as much stretch,
so you can measure across your project
and know the width of your project
and know that these loops are not gonna be coming out
and everything is the same size.
And because the loops are pre-stitched in,
it's a yarn that everybody can use.
It's simple and we're gonna take you through
the basics of how to begin and work
a couple of different stitches,
how to finish it off, make cables,
and also increase and decrease.
So get your yarn at Michaels and let's loop!
For this sample swatch,
let's begin with eight loops across,
which is about six inches or 15 centimeters.
We're going to take the first loop and cut it open.
Just take your scissors and cut this thread
that's in between the loop,
and this will be used for seaming in
or stitching in later to finish it off nicely.
Go ahead and lay your loops out nice and flat.
Working on a table for the first few rows
is easier to get these started.
And we can work from right to left or left to right,
and without turning our knit stitches,
everything's facing the right way.
Everything's facing up,
so you don't have to do any turning
like on a traditional needle.
So to cast on or begin
we just count out how many loops we need.
So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
and I am ready to begin my loop knit stitch.
I wanna put my working yarn to the back,
and through this loop here which is the last one
on my cast on or beginning row,
I'll take the next loop and place it to the back
and through that front loop stitch.
And we're just gonna pull that right up.
So loop through the loop,
and you've got your first stitch on there.
You're gonna go to the next loop on your cast on row,
and pull through the next loop on the working yarn
and pull that right up through
and you've got two loops made.
And we're gonna go to the next one and continue
pulling back to front.
And it was that easy.
Check that out.
And so after you've done the first one,
just give it a little tug.
It can't stretch far, these loops aren't going anywhere.
And to begin on the next row,
you just go in the opposite direction.
Take your last loop worked
and pull through the next loop on the strand.
And continue going.
Making a purl stitch causes more interest in your project
like this basketweave design here
or a garter stitch look.
Instead of having our yarn at the back,
we just move our working yarn to the front.
Then we lay the new loop over the previous loop
and then we work this new loop from front to back
up through that loop
and pull it through and it creates this bump
for a purl stitch.
You're going to lay the next loop on top of the old loop
back there and push it through from front to back
and pull through and you have got two purl stitches.
Make sure that you're keeping everything straight
and not twisting it as you go.
To change your yarn color or add a new ball
of the same color,
it's done the same way.
Here's my example where I am changing the yarn color,
and I want to make sure that I still have these ladders
of yarn in between to support that.
If I changed in the middle of the row
and I don't change it this way,
I will be missing it and have a little hole here.
So I am working with two strands together,
two loops together, and you can see I'll need
to tie in these ends together on the edges.
What I do to prepare that is I end my color
or ball that I want to stop
by leaving two loops on the end
and go ahead and cut the rest off.
And then I go ahead and open up that last loop
by cutting that thread in between as we've done before.
This part will get woven in later.
And we want to double up the loop on the end
where we're going to begin our new color.
So just flip it over and pair them together two-in-one.
Then grab our new ball
and leave an extra loop and we'll cut that open
to work in the tail later.
We're just gonna grab this loop here,
place it in the direction that we're going,
and pull it up and through just like that.
And you can see that the new color has come through
and that we're gonna go through the next loop
and just continue on in our pattern as usual.
So now you can go ahead and cut open this loop.
And it's ready for tacking in later on.
Once you've got your desired length,
you're going to bind off and we want to work
towards the tail or the working yarn.
So we can go ahead and cut a few loops down here
so where we can make a nice little tail to join in.
You could even have one loop or two loops.
You're just gonna be cutting open those same threads
that we've done before
so you can have a nice long tail to work with.
And we're going to loop through as the loop knit stitch.
So we're gonna take the front loop
and pull the back loop up and through.
Okay so front or first loop over our next loop,
pull it up and through.
Okay put it on top there, pull it through,
and it makes this nice chain look on the top.
And that last loop goes up and through,
and we have this last loop on here.
Now we can pull through this strand.
To fasten in your ends,
you're going to cut it off where you'd like
to use to fasten.
We're gonna bring it to the back of the project
into these stitches here.
And we're going to use thread and a needle.
And you can use a crochet hook or your fingers if you like.
I like to stitch this down and I know it is not
going to go anywhere.
So we're just gonna simply work with the thread
that's already there and go up and through.
And I'm just going to create a type of whip stitch here.
And I can knot that.
So I just pick a thread that's as close
to the thread that exists on there.
And then once I've got that in nice and secure,
gonna pull through a loop
and secure that and cut it off.
And then that is how I would weave in my ends,
and we can just go ahead and clip this.
And then do that to the remaining tails that you have.
Stack the next two loops when I'm working right to left,
put the second loop on top of the first loop,
and pull your new loop through,
making sure not to twist.
And you have a loop decrease right.
Stack the next two loops on your project together
with the first loop in front of the second loop
working from right to left
and pull the new loop through both of these loops,
making a new loop to the left.
This is a loop decrease left.
Increase by skipping the next loop on your yarn
and working the next loop knit or loop purl stitch
in the next loop.
So this one will be skipped and we're just going
to loop knit this one
and come along and complete our round or row
and work it as directed.
On the next round or row,
when you find one where you have increased,
you're just going to work this loop as directed.
Another alternative to increasing
is grab the next two loops on your yarn
and feed it through one loop.
When you pull up,
you'll separate the two loops,
and you now have an increase that will look similar to this.
Working on a right to left row,
skip the next loop on the project
and work a loop knit stitch into the next loop.
Bring it in front of the the skipped loop,
so move this one to the back,
and then bring it to the left
of the loop that you've already worked
and then loop knit into this skipped loop
that we did before.
So we're gonna bring the working yarn behind it
and pull that yarn through,
and you have a right twist cable.
Working right to left,
skip the next loop on the project
and work a loop knit into the next loop.
Leave the skipped loop forward and move it to the left
over the one you just worked,
and now work a loop knit stitch,
and you have a left twist cable.
You're going to work right to left
and skip the first two stitches that you want to cable.
Leave them in the back
and work that first stitch
and the next one.
And now pick up the two unused stitches or loops,
move them to the back,
and loop knit those stitches.
One and two.
And you have your right cross cable.
Skip the next two loops on the project
and work a loop knit into the next two stitches,
the next two loops.
And bring them behind the skipped loops
so the skipped loops run in the front.
Cross them over,
and now work the two loops that were skipped.
On your way back,
left to right, you will then work those in a knit stitch,
and you have your left cross cable.
(upbeat music)