Tutorial: Finger knitting

[Versione italiana]

Today we’re talking about finger knitting, a way to weave yarn to form a short strip or a tube similar in texture to traditional knitting.

There are different ways to finger knit. We'll see just one, which is the easiest in my opinion.
Instructions are written for right handed people, but can be followed by left handed people too – just swap hands and... reverse the pictures!

Let's start:

1. First cast-on row

1. Use a thick yarn, or your knit will be holey. Start with your left hand in front of you, with the palm facing you.
Hold the yarn at the base of the thumb, between your thumb and your index finger.
With your right hand, guide the yarn behind the index finger and in front of the middle finger, then again behind the ring finger and in front of the pinky finger.
Wrap around the pinky finger, and then go back by guiding the yarn in front of your ring finger, behind your middle finger and in front of your index finger.
You should end up with your hand wrapped in yarn as in picture 1.

2. Second cast-on row

2. Do the same again, so that you get the same result as in picture 2. Don't overlap the two rounds.
Now you have two "strands" of yarn in each finger.

3. Let's start weawing.

3. Let's start weaving: on your pinky finger, lift the lower strand – the one which is closer to the palm – over the other, and off over the end of your finger to the back.
Repeat for all fingers.

4. First row completed

4. You have made our first row of finger knitting.
Now you have one strand of yarn on each finger, so you need to make the second to continue knitting.

5. Beginning the second row

5. Guide the yarn to the back of your hand to your pinky finger and wrap it around the front, so you have a sort of big loop around all your fingers except for the thumb.
(Please note: In the pictures my fingers are open and the yarn is over my index finger, but when you work it's much easier to hold the yarn between the base of the thumb and the index.)

Now repeat step 3, using this loop you just formed as the top strand. Starting from your pinky finger, pass the strand over the loop and to the back, then do the same with your ring finger, middle finger and index finger. Here's the second row!
Repeat steps 3 to 5 – and here's your knit!

6. The result

6. On the back of your hand you'll see a woven thing – not a very pretty one in my case – that will be the base for all you finger knitted items.
In the picture you see the back of the knit...

7. The other side

7. ...and here's the front. Much prettier, I would say.
It's a knitted strip you can use as it is, or...

8. The tube

8. ...gently pulling the beginning of the yarn (I said gently) transform it into a tube.

9. Casting off

9. When you think your tube is long enough (remember to pull it regularly while you knit, because the pulled tube is much longer than the woven strip) it's time to cast off.
Cut the yarn leaving a long-ish tail, so that you can wrap it easily around your hand.
Guide the yarn at the back of your hand, and around to the front of your pinky finger.
To cast off, just pull the yarn entirely through the loop in your pinky, then lift the loop off the finger. Repeat with the other fingers, and there you are!

You can use finger knitted tubes to wrap around your neck as neckwarmers, braid them into bracelets or belts or stitch them to make rugs and coasters. No limit to your creativity!

Tutorial by CuorHome
Tutorial on her blog here and here.


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