Arm Knitting

A few weeks ago we had a very successful Maker program for teens & tweens devoted to a craft that I'd been wanting to try anyway:  Arm Knitting.

The idea behind arm knitting is that it is actually exactly like regular knitting, but you use your arms as very large needles.  While this might sound a bit intimidating to someone who has never tried something like this before, it's actually pretty easy to catch on.  There are tons of videos out there on YouTube that will show you the basics, but this one is the one that I liked best:


I taught myself to do arm knitting by watching this video with some yarn in hand, and I just copied what she did.  I already knew how to do "regular" knitting with needles, so I caught on pretty quickly.  Even without this background knowledge, it's not too hard to figure out if you pay attention!

This event was hugely popular.  I had 12 teen/tween girls sign up to participate, and another two dropped in unexpectedly.  We also heard lots of comments from parents who wandered into the library and saw my sample who said that they'd love to do something like this too, so our Adult Services department will be doing a similar program in a few months.

It was a bit challenging to teach everyone how to do the arm knitting because it is a skill that is much easier to teach one-on-one than to a group.  I did have the above video playing the the background on a loop for people to watch, and I think that helped.  I circled around to show people up close what needed to be done and, if needed, actually held the kids' hands and showed them what the motions needed to be like.  This helped a few who were slower on the uptake quite a bit.  Things were a bit hectic with so many people to help, and I do wish that I had had an assistant or two to help out with the instruction.  But we made do.

Casting on was by far the most difficult part, but once that was done everyone caught on to the repetitive motions needed to knit the length of the scarf.  I did have to remind them quite frequently to pull their loops snugly around their wrists so that their stitches would not be overly large (and there were a few who ignored this advice), but otherwise there were no real snags. 

To make an arm knit infinity scarf, you will need two balls of super bulky weight yarn.  You will hold the yarn double (one strand from each ball held together) to get the thickness that you need.  Of course, you could use only one strand for a thinner scarf, or more strands for a thicker scarf.  I provided yarn for all participants, and seriously lucked out when bulky yarn went on sale at Michaels just the week before my program.  I didn't spend more than $2 on each ball of yarn, which is a steal!  If you'd like to do this program, I recommend keeping your eyes peeled well in advance for similar sales, and have a coupon ready to help minimize your costs.

This was a challenging program to pull together, but I would absolutely do it again in the future.  Everyone had a good time, and I even had the mom of one of my participants drop in and tell me that they had bought more yarn to make more scarves on their own now that they knew the technique.  Success!