Knifty Knitter

There are some products that you hear about and think to yourself "who in the world would want that?" Others sell by the millions, only to end up in garage sales for years (the salad shooter comes to mind) because they had no real value and once the niftiness wears off it becomes just a paperweight. Then there are those things that really are pretty neat, and who cares if they just happen to be simple. The nifty knitter is certainly one of those types of things.

As you can tell, we're not typically in the rush to buy the latest and greatest thing. Tried and true tends to be better than slick and new. It turns out that the nifty knitter is exactly that. The nifty knitter is a loom knitting kit, and loom knitting is nothing new. As a matter of fact, although no one knows for sure which came first: the needle or the loom, there was a goddess of weaving in predynastic egypt more than 5,000 years ago. So making things on looms has been around since, like, the same time as the wheel or something.

The Nifty Knitter kit, then, is actually more like nifty packaging of a very old system of turning thread (in this case yarn) into stuff. In all reality loom knitting is far faster and easier than needle knitting and can be learned by children as young as four. Loom knitting is also perfect for people who have lost their dexterity (or didn't have any to begin with) or find needles difficult to hold and maneuver. The best way to put it is that loom knitting is a more efficient, quicker and simpler process than needle knitting. It is certainly the reason you don't see machines that mimic needle knitting in textile manufacturing, it's just not as good as loom knitting.

So you can turn yourself into a bit of a knitting machine if you decide to use a loom. Even stuff that takes years of practice, such as knitting in the round to make hats and socks and other tubular projects is a snap on a loom, or at least, far easier than trying to juggle all those double pointed needles. Loom knitting can even be used to make large projects that always have just the right balance and symmetry. No more lopsided scarves, blankets and doilies.

Now, even though the Nifty Knitter is just a twist on a very old technique, that certainly doesn't mean it's just a piece of junk. The nifty knitter kit really does have everything you need to make a simply huge variety of things from socks to hats, scarves, and yes, even doilies. As a matter of fact, it makes doing things like socks, which would generally require knitting in the round, far easier for beginners. Hardly anyone would think of trying to knit socks their first time out, but loom knitting on the nifty knitter makes starting with socks just as easy as starting with something simple like a dishcloth.

In part 2 we'll look at some of the pros and cons of the knifty knitter.