Introduction: Knifty Knitter Loom Stand for FREE
The ultimate upcycled loom stand for the knifty knitter looms
This cost me $0 dollars to make! Very affordable!
Materials you will need:
• Old camera tripod (from my dad’s days as a want to be photographer)
• Long Loom (given to me by a friend who gave up on knitting)
• 4 or more skewers (left over from summer bbq)
• 4 or more drink straws (used at least once)
• Mailing tube (from 1999 purchase through Bass Pro)
• 1- 4”x4” piece of wood or thick plastic (purchased from thrift store as drink coaster)
• 2 small bungee cords (wrapped around a tent in my garage)
• Industrial Strength Velcro (left over pieces from husbands last project)
• 4 medium zip ties (laying around in my garage)
• 2 small zip ties
Optional materials:
• Spray Paint & Decoration Items for mailing tube
• 2 paper clips any size (mine are large)
• 2 lids from spray paint cans or spray air freshener, depending on the size of your mailing tube
Tools you will need:
• Drill (for the 5 holes in the mailing tube)
• Drill bit slightly smaller than the size of your skewers
• Hack saw or other saw (to cut mailing tube and skewers)
• Hole punch (for hole in Velcro)
“See a need and fill it”,
I found a new hobby and of course I also found something that I couldn’t buy for it! I was in the process of making my second scarf on my new second hand loom when I started to wonder what could make this a lot easier for me. I needed a stand of some sort to be my extra hand. I like to have the option to leave a project for a break and come back to it when I feel refreshed or need to unwind. This was hard to do with the loom for a number of reasons. One being that the minute I put it down the yarn would loosen up or unwind. Two because I have a bit of a lived in living room with a one year old romping about and a curious five year old who thinks that anything new or colorful must be for him. Three (as if we needed a third reason) is my wonderful husband who cannot wait to come behind me and move my things to parts unknown and forget exactly where he may or may not have put them. For these three reasons I decided to put my massive woman brain to work and find a solution!
First stop was google and Bing to search for an online store in which to buy said stand but to no avail. I thought for sure there would be a neat little plastic stand for the loom. But no, my search engine did not find a thing.
Next was the Instructables.com website where I live(lol) to find an instructable about how to make one but that too was a dead end. Frustrated and a bit over worked I slept on it and when I awoke and changed the first of many poopy diapers and put my very moody five year old on the bus to school it came to me! I could probably make what I needed with things around my home! Eureka! Yay for morning poopy diapers and moody five year old boys!
I rushed out to my garage to see what I could see. After a quick scan of the garage low and behold my first spark of genius was sitting in a darkened and rarely ventured to part of our garage. It was my father’s old tripod from his very, very short lived stint as The family photographer! Thank goodness mom put a stop to that half baked idea before dad got the idea to dress us in matchy- matchy Santa and his merry little elves outfits for our family Christmas picture!
Wow what luck to have found something I was looking to find! Now all I needed to do was figure out a way to attach the loom to the tripod without closing up the center of the loom which needs to stay clear for the passing of the knitted scarf and also a way to make it detachable. I might want to make another use for the tripod in the future.
What could I use….. why, left over skewers from last summer’s bbq that my loving husband has been threatening to toss in the wood burner since winter began. That’ll show ‘em! Lol. The wood skewers fit in the little holes located on the back side of the loom just snug enough. The skewers are not pretty to look at so why not add some interest with straws! I just so happen to have a bunch in the sink waiting to be washed and reused! My son loves a straw with his milk. I think it’s the whole blowing bubbles till the milk spills out of the cup that he enjoys the most. Not so much the straws themselves.
Next I would need a base for the loom skewers to rest upon and attach to the tripod. I needed this item to be light enough for me to move around and sturdy enough to be worth my time and effort to make. It also needed to be long not wide or too thick. I looked at our wood pile for something but all my wood was either too heavy or too rustic. I searched my garage but nothing popped out at me. I decided to make a sandwich and watch some soaps while the baby napped.
Hmmmmm…. What could I use…. After getting all worked up over Brenda having slept with Sonny’s long lost son while she was living in Rome as a super model and almost having his baby, I stomped off to my attic to see what I could see and, not expecting to find much, I found the perfect thing!! A mailing tube! It had once been used to mail a fishing pole to my husband so I knew it had to be sturdy enough for this project yet light enough for me to move from room to room if need be.
Next was a way to put it all together. Now before I get a lot of suggestions on the stuff of dreams I’d like to say that Yes, I did think of duct tape! Lol! Here in the south it is one of our most used and treasured repair and build solutions. But alas, it would not work to have my friends and neighbors think that my imagination could not come up with a more intriguing solution to this most exciting advancement in the loom evolution! Hahahaa! So I decided the next best thing and one rung up over our love of duct tape would have to be Velcro! Back off to the garage!
Finally! Here are the steps I used to create the ever more beautiful and useful Knifty Knitter loom stand made from upcycled items found in and around my home. I hope my retelling of this story will spark in you a way to make this project with items from your home. This is a nice starting point for a knifty knitter loom stand and can be tinkered with to make it much better! We need this!
Good luck and if you like this project and think its worthy vote for it! Thanks again and enjoy!
Step 1: Making the Cut!
Step 1: Making the cut!
• Get out that old tripod! This is the fun part! If you don’t have an old tripod you can more than likely find one at your local thrift store or purchase a new one from Wal-Mart for around $10.00. Mine was a throwback from my father and one of his whims so free it was!
• Go out to the garage or attic and pick up that old mailing tube that’s been sitting in the way for years tripping you and trying to break your neck. If you don’t have an old mailing tube you may be able to find this at Wal-Mart as well for a few bucks but I would ask family and friends if they have an out of use one first because upcycling is a really awesome way to feel good about your projects and its free which is nice.
• Also find those skewers from last summer and put them to good use! If you already threw them out or used them to make a TeePee for your thanksgiving cupcakes then these you may be able to “borrow” from the neighbor. If your neighbor is a scrooge then Wal-Mart is a good option I suppose. You don’t want to use toothpicks because they are too short and the loom will sit too close to the mailing tube unless you duct tape a few together long ways….lol…
• Take your mailing tube and size it to your longest or most used loom.
• Mark your cut and go to the garage or outside area to make your cut. (Please wear safety glasses to protect your extremely important and almost vital eyeballs. If you lose your sight then this project will not be of much use to you…)
• Cut your tube. I used a hack saw for this because I am too laze to plug in my charger for my electric saw and because the hack saw was looking up at me with those big shiny teeth begging to be used just one more time for old time sake!
• Then measure a nice distance from loom to tube (enough for you to comfortably pull your project through) and be sure to factor in the inside of the mailing tube because your skewers will be resting on the inside bottom of the mailing tube. Mark your cut.
• Take the skewers and hack saw these as well while wearing your safety glasses. By now your hack saw should be feeling very good about itself and you can rest assured that it will not pester you for at least a month!
Step 2: Drill Your Tube!
• Then, if you have a tripod that still has the screw in the center to hold a camera, either take the screw out or mark your mailing tube on the underneath where it will be stationed on the tripod. This is just as a precaution and probably won’t even be used. Also, if you keep the screw you will need to mark your 4”X4” piece of wood or plastic for a hole in the middle as this will be resting on the very top of the tripod.
• Next you want to put on those special little safety glasses and get to drilling! All five holes need to be drilled in your mailing tube and one hole in your 4”X4” piece of wood/plastic. You want to choose a drill bit that is the size of your skewers or a tad smaller for your mailing tube and a bit larger than your screw for the 4”X4” piece of wood/plastic.
Step 3: Fill Your Holes With Skewers!
• Take the skewers and place them inside of the mailing tubes freshly drilled holes. Next take your loom and line it up with your skewers. (I used the loom holes below the top two for my skewers. I figured it would be steadier then using the top two holes.) Place skewers into loom and look at how crazy it looks so far. It will look better when you’re finished.
• If you want to paint your tube then now is the time. I spray painted mine with some left over satin finish paint that I used to paint some old thrift store frames I used as décor for my little boys room. (Turned out so cute!)
Step 4: Attach the 4 X4 Piece of Wood or Plastic!
• Cut your Velcro to the same dimensions as your tripod head. You will be using a hole punch if you just use one large piece. If you want to cut four small pieces then I suppose you could forgo the hole punch.
• Punch a hole in the center of your Velcro and adhere said Velcro to said tripod head making sure that the hole in the Velcro is centered above your screw. Do the same to your 4”X4” piece of wood/plastic. Put the two pieces of Velcro together and let them get to know one another for a while. A little alone time if you know what I mean… and if you know what I mean then you are a bit of a nut and should get some therapy too! Hahaa.(My 4”X4” is a sample of some sort of weed grass acrylic that I found at the thrift store. I bought it and used it as a coaster but it didn’t work out so well because all the condensation that dripped from my frosty beverage collected on the wanna be coaster and spilled over the side to make a big square watery mess on my “antique” thrift store coffee table. I almost added a circle of cork to the non-coaster coaster but decided that I already had enough funky free stylin’ coasters and could use this for something else. Good thing I did because now it is the coolest mailing tube holder thing-a-majig ever!)
Step 5: Zip Ties, Bungee Cords and Paper Clips Oh My!!
Now it is time for the zip ties, Bungee cords and paper clips. If you went for the Velcro option then you will want to add zip ties through the mailing tube and around the 4”X4” wood/plastic.
• Mark 2 lines on both sides of your mailing tube (will be 4 lines all together). Make the lines line up with your piece of wood/plastic. You want them to look like mine does in the picture.
• Take a pair of scissors or a knife and SAFELY stab through your mailing tube so that you have a large enough slit to fit your zip ties through. (I used a pair of scissors.)
• This step is FUN! Take one zip tie and feed it through one of your holes all the way through to the hole on the opposite side and stop. Do the same with your second hole and stop. You should have chosen zip ties that are long enough for this project. Tighten your zip ties around your 4”X4” wood/plastic but make sure that you do not attach your zip tie to the tripod. (That would defeat the whole Velcro thing. You would not be able to detach the loom attachment from the tripod if you have it zip tied to the tripod head…)
Once you have secured your mailing tube to your 4”X4” wood/plastic it’s time to put it all together. Here are a few steps to help you with this process.
• Insert one end of your skewers into the mailing tube.
• Insert the other end of your skewers into the holes on the underneath of your loom.
• Zip tie your straws together as shown in pictures. This will steady your loom while you are using it.
• The bungee cords are easy to use once you get the hang of it. Wrap one end of your bungee cord around one end of your mailing tube. Secure it to the head peg of your loom as shown in the pictures. This is a bit wordy for me to describe so please look at picture and ask any questions you may have. (I use the bungee that is hooked to the head peg of my loom to hold my yarn stands while I’m away. I also added the paper clips for this reason.)
• Attach the paper clips to the zip ties on either side as seen in pic. These are to hold your yarn while you are away from your project.
Step 6: Your Done! Well Kind Of.... Lol
