How to Finger Knit

Fingerknitting is king of crafts! For years, I have watched little children transform into master creators just through the learning of this simple skill. It just has so many uses. Why not ask a child for some ideas?

An instruction verse for finger knitting.

One way to teach finger knitting is to use a small action story or verse.

Here is one I like to use:

“Over the log, off jumps the frog
Pull the knitting down, run back up to town”.

Step One:

Slip knot loop goes onto first finger- left hand for ‘righties’, right hand for ‘lefties’

Step Two:

“Over the log,”

Long length (attached to ball of wall) goes over the finger, next to the slip knot loop.

**demonstrated here in the second picture with little bit further on, with the ‘knitting’ visible

(important for a few steps further on)

Step Three:

“Off jumps the frog,”

Pull the slipknot loop OVER the top of the long piece that is now resting upon the finger
Be careful not to let both wool ‘loops’ slip off the finger entirely. This tends to happen at first!

If it does, back to step one.

Step Four:

This is the step that no-one teaches and it is the most important bit of all to stave off frustration in little people.

**MOST IMPORTANT**

“Catch it!!! “

Use your thumb to ‘catch’ the new loop onto the finger. This secures fingerknitting and prevents wool from running away from you in the next step.

Step Five:

“Pull the knitting down,”

Take the ‘knitting’, ie: the piece of wool that is NOT attached to the ball  (see picture in step four to see what this looks like once a few finger knitting stitches have appeared.)

This picture shows the beginning of your ‘fingerknitting’.  It takes about 6 times of doing these steps through before the ‘knitting’ becomes truly visible.

Pull the wool down until it ‘locks’ into place and can’t go any further. Be sure your thumb is still ‘catching’ the loop on your finger.

Hint:

If your thumb has let go, the wool will run and run away from you and no ‘locking’ will occur. The loop on the finger will then grow tremendously large!

Rescue this by pulling on the other wool string until loop on finger returns to normal size.

Step Six:

“Run back up to town… “

Now, let go of the ‘thumb catch’ and pull on the string that is attached to the ball. This will return the loop on your finger to a ‘slip knot’ and you can begin again.

Back to Step Two: “Over the log… ”