Yes, you did read that right. Apparently knitting with your arms and not needles is nothing new; this skill's been around for at least a century. Remember when I talked about the Guinness Record for finger knitting, well this just eliminates the digits, sort of.
According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal there's a real interest in arm knitting in the 18-34 year old group often referred to as the Millennials. The Millennials are drawn to this type of knitting due to its do-it-yourself approach. The finished product is very droopy and loopy and although I recently knit something that looks very much like the cowl below with large yarn and needles, I can guarantee anyone who is interested that I won't be using my arms instead of needles any time soon, meaning never.
This is how items made with your arms as needles will look
The technique is essentially the same as using needles with the only difference that fingers are used to pull one loop over the other instead of the point of a needle. Due to the "size" of the needles the yarn needed to knit with your arms must be very chunky. This can be achieved by either purchasing chunky yarn or by doubling up worsted yarn. Should you be interested here's a 5-minute video on how to do this, put together by Rachel Dodes, author of the WSJ article.
Too bad I didn't learn about this years ago, imagine what I could have saved by not having to purchase all the different types and sizes of knitting needles I now own. But then, I would also be limited in what I could knit as well. Variety is very, very good from my POV and having only needles the size of my arms just wouldn't offer that variety. I'll be sticking with needles.
According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal there's a real interest in arm knitting in the 18-34 year old group often referred to as the Millennials. The Millennials are drawn to this type of knitting due to its do-it-yourself approach. The finished product is very droopy and loopy and although I recently knit something that looks very much like the cowl below with large yarn and needles, I can guarantee anyone who is interested that I won't be using my arms instead of needles any time soon, meaning never.
This is how items made with your arms as needles will look
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| A cowl |
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| A blanket |
Too bad I didn't learn about this years ago, imagine what I could have saved by not having to purchase all the different types and sizes of knitting needles I now own. But then, I would also be limited in what I could knit as well. Variety is very, very good from my POV and having only needles the size of my arms just wouldn't offer that variety. I'll be sticking with needles.
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