Knit a Shrug on a Circular Knitting Machine

I’ve been having a lot of fun making projects on my circular knitting machine (which could also easily be done with hand knitting, of course!) and when I shared a collection of sweater scarf knitting patterns recently I wondered how I could make a similar project on my Sentro.

I didn’t have enough of the yarn I was working with to make a full-on sweater scarf that wraps around the body, but there was enough to make a shrug, and I think it’s really cute and I will wear it a lot this spring and summer over tank tops and summer dresses.

For those who do have circular knitting machines, you just knit tubes for the sleeves as long as you want them, and a flat panel for the back. For the shrug it’s basically the same length as my back from shoulder to shoulder, but if you wanted to make a sweater scarf (which I am still going to do at some point) you’d just keep knitting as long as you want until you can wrap it around your body.

The concept would be the same knitting it by hand, but you could more easily do it in one piece: work a sleeve in the round, bind off half the stitches when you have the length you need, then cast on stitches to the desired length of the back and work flat to the desired width, then bind off the bottom part of the back panel and cast on again to work in the round for the remaining sleeve.

If you want to check out more detailed instructions for how I made my circular knit shrug, you can find the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

Do you have a circular knitting machine? If you do and there are patterns you would like to see, let me know. It’s a fun challenge to work with knitting in a different way.

Circular Knitting Machine FAQs

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You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try.

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]

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