Single Rake knitting On a double rake

On a group there was talk of a new/old type of knitting on a loom. This type of loom I have seen pictures of in the old patent file E Hagihara Knitting tool, Patent March 29, 1929, flied March 17, 1925,
#1,705,860, although it is not exactly the same you can get the idea from that file if you want to search it out.

The idea is that you have a loom with two sides. Any two sided board will do as long as the sides are not permanently attached to each other. You need to be able to move the back board to adjust the gauge of the knitted piece, and of course the smaller the gauge of the loom in the first place the better the knitting will look. Still you can use a double strand of yarn and get good results.

This is the same concept as the Pocket Knitter that came out not long ago. The only difference in this way of knitting is that the two boards that are adjustable can change in gauge of your work, while the pocket knitter is one size only. Sorry those back fins/pins/pegs (or what ever you choose to call them) are stationary at one point. So the gauge is the same no matter what the project.

So how do you do this? I played around with this on my dreamboard first using one strand of worsted, and then using two strands of worsted. I did an ewapped stitch first. This one was with a slipped first peg. It works out ok but the work was loose, as can be expected from a loom with a 1/2" guage in the pegs spacing. Also the first stitch that is slipped is elongated a lot but could have been tightened a bit if I had bothered to worry about, but as usual it is not what I like to do on that first peg. I prefer not to do a slipped stitch.

How to do this with a slipped stitch first peg on a board loom with the e-wrapped stitch.
1: Take the two sides of the board and put them right next to each other and fasten them down with whatever equipment your board uses.
2: Attach your working yarn with a slip stitch to the first peg that is on the side closest to you. This will be your knitting side, while the other side of the board is simply the holding peg for the fabric.
3: With your yarn slip knot on that first peg go to the second peg on the back board and around it just like you would do for the board stockinette stitch, come down to the second peg on the bottom row and e-wrap the peg. Now go back to the top row and around the next peg, and continue wrapping in this method.
4: At the start of your return row your working yarn should be at the first peg on the bottom row. Start the return row by wrapping the yarn around a top peg continuing down to the second peg on the bottom and e-wrapping it. Up to the next peg and around it on the top row, down to the third peg on the bottom row and doing another e-wrap.
5: Knit off all the front pegs with two wraps on them. Do Not touch the loops on the back row. The back row is never knitted off. When knitting off the front row pegs be sure you simply drop the stitch you are knitting off to the back of the peg it is on. Do Not place that knitted stitch over the peg on the back of the board.
6: Wrap again, remembering to skip that first peg by moving your yarn around the top peg and doing an e-wrap around the bottom peg.
7: Continue to wrap and knit off in this fashion. After a couple of rows grab the fabric at the bottom of the pegs in the back and pull it gently downwards. You will at first notice these stitches building up on the back pegs but not to worry for as soon as you have a few stitches on there you can pull the work away from the pegs with that gentle tug. It kind of looks like magic.

Then I tried adding a second strand of yarn to work with. This firms up the work a lot on this larger gauged loom. Granted it is not a large gauge being smaller then the knifty knitter looms but it is still large compared to some of the fine and extra fine gauged ones.

First I did the slipped stitch for the first peg. Again the stitches on the sides are a bit big for my liking but they probably could be made tighter if I worked at it. I didn't. I also used the e-wrapped method for the first section. You can tell by looking at the work that this is the slanted stitch that is the e-wrap. All the stitches have that slanted look to them.

Next I tried a knit stitch. To do the knit stitch wrap that bottom peg straight around instead of having it cross itself. I slipped stitched the first peg in trying this for a few rows and you can see the difference in the look. I didn't do too many rows as I was on to play with a non-slipped first peg.

I tried both the e-wrap, the knit stitch, and threw in a few purled stitches just to play around with this and they all work just fine. Rather then wrap the entire section for doing the purl I worked one peg at a time as you would do with a round loom to make the purl stitch. I found this to be easier for me as it is what I am use to doing. I don't need to reinvent the cart to pull the horse so I just used what I know.

Now here is what I see from playing with this. A smaller gauged looms to begin with would work the best. Having pins/nails that are tiny would also be the best to use. The closer the pins the better the fabric would look. If you have made your own boards with nails then you have a beginning plus to start with. My dreamboard is an adjustable loom that can be used as a round single rake. It has end pieces that can be set across the board where you want them, and as such it has predrilled holes where I can place the ends. For this other use to change the gauge of this loom all I would have to do (I think this would work, haven't tried it yet), is offset the pegs, but then little tiny washers put between the two sides before fastening them together would work also.

So those who have made their own with pins will, in my opinion have the best if they choose to have pins close together, but wider will work. Pins/nails have been difficult to use and are not quite as fast when using your loom as a single rake as having grooves but with this method you will find it to be quite easy. The process of wrapping around that back peg creates a slight gap at the back of the pin that your hook will easily slide into. This allows for easier pickup of that bottom stitch to knit it off.

Isela made a video for the pocket knitter that will show you the slipped first peg method with a knit stitch. In that video she also shows how to do a purl stitch. This is exactly the same method of using your adjustable loom as a single rake. So take a look at that video. Take your adjustable loom and place the sides close to each other and test what you see in the video as you go. You will be on your way to using that double rake as a single rake in no time at all. (thanks Isela for such wonderful videos for people to learn from)
Pocket Knitter Video

There is nothing perfect to this following picture. It is that quick I have to play with this because I want to. So don't be too hard on the fact that this is really an ugly example.