PRODUCT REVIEW: Knifty Knitters

A few years back, one of the moms in our homeschool group opened up a little summertime class at her home to teach girls in grades 4-6 how to use a Knifty Knitter. Aisling and a number of her little friends bought a skein of yarn and a set of the Knitters and they were off to the races, churning out some very nice items with great ease.

A Knifty Knitter, you ask? What is such a thing, and what can you make with it? How do you use it? Is it expensive? Can you make a scarf, some mittens, a knee length wrap sweater dress à la Diane von Furstenberg?

Wait, wait, whoooaaaaa....Don't ask so many questions so fast. You know I don't sleep much, and therefore am in a constant state of grumpy befuddlement. Okay, here you go.

1. Yes, a Knifty Knitter. There are a whole line of Knifty Knitter products, in fact.

2. Knifty Knitters are looms upon which one can produce knitted items.

3. Oh, gracious...you can make scarves and hats and afghans and dishcloths and all sorts of cute things. Probably not a sweater dress, unless you were very, very clever and patient.

If you'd like to see these knitting looms of different shapes and sizes, click here and here and here.

The Knifty Knitters are manufactured by ProvoCraft and they're very inexpensive. And if you are a non-crafty kind of person (which would be like me) or a semi-crafty person (like Meelyn and Aisling), you can really get a lot of pleasure out of making cute stuff with these things. Aisling bought some chunky yarn in sherbet colors and knitted up a sweet little toboggan hat for Kiersi, which she presented to her yesterday; Kiersi, not quite three, looked like a darling little pixie in it and Aisling was very pleased.

If you'd like to see some things created by Knifty Knitters that weren't created by us (well, I say "us," but truth be told, I've yet to produce a simple scarf...), you can click here for a pet sweater worn by an embarrassed Maltese, here for some sweet little Halloween treats (black cat, ghostie and wee Jack-'o-lantern), here for a precious Easter bunny posing with a daffodil, here for some really nice hats....

There's so much more, it's impossible to list links for them all, but when I did my Google search, I found amazing things like sweaters for adults and children, baby bootees (so cute!), Christmas stockings and ornaments and all sorts of things. And none of them looked like the kind of thing produced for Gifte Shoppes, the kind of places where you can buy toilet roll covers that look like a knitted hoop skirt with half of a generic, cheap plastic "Barbie" sticking out of the top and ribbon candy in unappealing flavors and pine bread boxes with bloated strawberries done in tole painting on the lids, nothing like that.

If, in these uncertain economic times, you'd like to (quickly) make a few little gifts for people, the Knifty Knitters are a great way to start. Aisling and Meelyn can make nice hats in one evening, a scarf in an afternoon. There are so many beautiful, cozy yarns out there just demanding to be done up in a simple gift that will please, surely, any girl or woman on your Christmas list.