How to do French knitting

• How to make a pompom
• Knitting for beginners: the complete guide
• Learn to knit: with our knitting how-to videos
• Learning to knit video: how to choose yarn
• Learning to knit video: how to cast on
• Learning to knit video: the knit stitch
• Learning to knit video: the purl stitch
• Learning to knit video: how to cast off
• Make it in moss stitch...
• How to change yarn colours
• How to follow a hand knitting chart
• How to do appliqué with knitting
• How to do French knitting
• Knitting knowhow: how to make up/seaming
• Knitting patterns for beginners: all in garter stitch
• How to knit: step by step

Most of us remember French knitting from childhood. It's also called spool knitting and it is still a useful form of knitting.

You can buy commercial French knitting dolls (like this one, left, from Amazon), or make your own.

If you're lucky enough to find wooden cotton reels, just hammer in four nails. But the larger plastic ones will, we've found, take nails too.

You can also use a hollowed cork or drill a hole in a piece of wood; the bigger the centre hole, the thicker the finished cord.

Begin by threading the end of the yarn through the centre hole.

Twist the yarn round each nail as shown in the diagram. Pull yarn taut.

Take the yarn round the outside of the next nail, pick up the loop with a crochet hook or blunt needle, and lift over the nail. Repeat, working round the nails in a clockwise direction, until the cord starts to appear through the bottom of the hole.

To cast off, lift each stitch over the next nail until one stitch remains. Cut the yarn, draw it through the last stitch and pull tight. Darn ends of knitting into the centre of the knitted cord.

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