Crafty RDH: Knitting Fork (Lucet) Tutorial

Introducing the lucet (also known as a knitting fork). I found this on radmegan's blog. I was instantly fascinated with this new way to knit and began thinking of the endless possibilities of things I could make with the knitting fork. My first goal was to make hearts for the girls in our Sunday School class for red day.

Knit hearts: Lucet vs Knitting needles

I LOVE my knitting needles and creating things with them but for needing multiple hearts in a short amount of time the lucet was great! No need to count rows, increase or decrease stitches. It was a great first project! Below is my picture tutorial of how to use the lucet and radmegan's video.

This is the lucet/knitting fork.
The top part "fork" area are tines.
Then you have the hole that your knitting goes through.
Last but not least the handle.

To begin knitting with the lucet put the yarn through the hole and make a figure eight around the tines. I realize that I started wrapping my yarn to the side to make the figure eight but in retrospect I find it easier to bring the yarn to the back (where my pointer finger is in the picture) and then start wrapping the figure eight. The way the tail was wrapped seemed to make it a little more difficult to tug on the tail and keep the knitting tight. So I ended up straightening it out half way through. Hope that makes sense!(Feel free to ask questions if it doesn't!)

Take working yarn and wrap it straight across the tines (finishing the figure eight on the left tine). Take the bottom yarn that is on the right tine and slip it over the top yarn and over the tine. (I know the left tine looks like it has the double yarn too... this is why I recommended earlier to start wrapping the figure eight differently so that it won't be so confusing).

This is what it will look like after you pull the yarn over the tine on the right side. Next flip the knitting fork over and wrap the yarn straight across the other tine (Previously the left tine, now the right).

Your knitting fork will look like this after you've flipped it and wrapped the yarn again (you're continuously wrapping the right tine because you keep flipping the knitting fork over). Keep working and tugging on the tail through the hole to keep it tight.

You end up with a tight knit braided chain. So many endless crafts!

When you've reached your desired length, remove loops from tines and cut tail from ball of yarn. Put tale through loops and pull tight.

To make the heart I took the tales from both ends of the chain and tied them together to make a circle, tucking in the ends. I left my ends long enough that after weaving the ends in I could use it to create the heart shape at the top. Pinching the circle together at the top to form the heart shape and sewing the pinched area together with the yarn and a needle.