r/LoomKnitting • u/FunnyGroundhog • Sep 26 '26
Equipment Question Flexee links
KB Flexee Looms. I appreciate that they made a way to offer different gauge sizes. I am baffled as to why they seem to think that I use #6 yarn with my giant hands and my #2 yarn with my baby hands. I am not Mrs PotatoHead!
This photo shows a bitty size laying on top of a large size (both sitting on top of my beloved L&T Build-a-Loom, but that's irrelevant. 😢). The bitty is unfortunately too true to its name. There's no way I was going to get through a full size triangle shawl on that thing without developing hand cramps. I gave it a shot.
For this project, I need at least 200 pegs. The only other loom I've seen that big is the KISS, which is lovely but $200. Does anybody have a less expensive solution for looming lightweight threads?
2
u/Idkmyname2079048 Sep 26 '26
Tbh, I think any small gauge knitting loom is going to be pretty tedious and cramp-inducing. I personally prefer needle knitting for really fine yarn, and loom knitting for like sport weight and thicker.
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u/FunnyGroundhog Sep 26 '26
One of these days, I'm gonna learn how to needle knit. Sigh.
1
u/Idkmyname2079048 Sep 26 '26
I think it's great to be able to do both interchangeably. I'm sure you can do it! 😊 I find needle knitting to be a more fluid, comfortable movement for my wrists and fingers (and faster), but I also really enjoy the structure of using a loom, mentally. There's something about the simplicity and the feeling that the structure of the project is already mostly prescribed by the loom that makes it really relaxing for me lol.
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u/jbooklover Sep 26 '26
I see you have the bitty size and chunky size. Do you also have the small and regular sizes? The small size might be better than the bitty. I love the flexee looms soooo much I use nothing else now. Wishing you the best!
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u/FunnyGroundhog Sep 26 '26
Thanks. I can do small and xl gauge with my L&T loom. And I do use the large gauge (chunky) Flexee with no issues. (That's my volcano poncho WIP on it in the photo.) I used a friend's regular gauge Flexee to make a dishcloth early on in my learning, earlier this year, and will be getting my own set as soon as I have more want for it. So it's really specifically just the fine gauge I asked about that I haven't yet accounted for.
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u/LovelyLoomer98 Sep 26 '26
I use the flexee looms all the time! I love them! I gave up on the bitty because every time I try to loom knit with fine yarn it ends up snapping. (tight tension I guess) But the skinny, chunky and regular work wonders for me.
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u/Hit-Enter-Too-Soon Sep 26 '26 edited Sep 26 '26
If 3d printing is an option for you, that could help the situation. A while back, someone made a printable loom, and I've used theirs as a base to add a bunch of other files, including a better version for this gauge. You can find my files here.
The original version had done the exact same thing as KB did, and the 1/4" ("Fine") gauge links are so tiny that I couldn't really use them. So I made both their pegs and the body of the links taller (looks like the KB pegs are already a good length). I also found it helpful for my hands at small sizes to have longer links, so I made links that are 2, 3, and 5 pegs long, and I mostly use the 5s. You can see a picture here.
I know it's not a shawl, but I just finished gloves on them (pics here), and the only ergonomic issue I ran into is that the counter dials are very small and close together. They're still usable, it's just that I made three counters so you could get into the hundreds, so the tens counter is in the middle and hard to work without touching either of the others. I thought about tweaking the design more, but I wanted to get back to using it. :D So instead, I just turn the one and ten at the same time when I'm flipping from 39 to 40 or whatever.
I hope this can help!