Yarn Usage for Different Loom Knit Stitches

I have a new friend on Facebook!  Hard to believe but true nonetheless...  Say hello to Katie of the Crafty Misu Co.  You can find her at:  Facebook.com/craftymisuco

Well Katie has taken the trouble to work up some swatches to see how much yarn different stitches use.

Here is what she has found out.  Take it away, Katie!

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Alright so for everyone like me who knits on a budget, yarn usage is an important consideration before taking on a new project. Because I wanted to see which stitches have the best ratio between yard efficiency and knitting speed, I tested six stitches to see how much yarn they use (I already know how long they take me to knit, on average):

Measurements are for 5 rounds of knitting on a 12 peg (3/4" gauge) flower loom, counting from the end of the slip knot to the end of the tail of the working yarn:

E-wrap Knit - 136 1/4"
Flat Knit - 97 5/8"
U-Wrap Knit (U-Knit) - 102 7/16"
Basic Purl - 100 1/2"
Figure Eight (All-In-One-Round) - 221 7/16"
Diamond Lace - 225 1/2"

41" of each measurement was the cast-on length, that brings the per-stitch/per-peg measurements as follows:

E-wrap Knit - 2 1/4" ps
Flat Knit - 1 9/16" ps
U-Wrap Knit - 1 5/8" ps
Basic Purl - 1 1/2" ps
*Figure Eight (AIOR) - 3 5/8" ps
*Diamond Lace - 3 11/16" ps

*I will post pictures of the differences between these two stitches as well.

So long story short, you won't see a big difference in the amount of yarn used when you are making small projects with a low number of rows. However, the more rows you knit, the more you will notice that certain stitches use more yarn than others. The flat knit stitch uses the smallest yardage of yarn, and the diamond lace stitch uses the most.

Now for some pictures...

• Shows the 2" tail.
  

• E-wrap cast on - pulled taut but not stretched.

• Figure 8 (all in one round) - You wrap in a figure eight, until there are three loops on every peg, then knit over.

• Diamond lace stitch - You wrap in a figure eight, and knit over those two pegs before continuing. Each peg technically gets TWO stitches per round.

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Thank you, Katie, for all  your hard work and pictures!

Now I would like to add a few of things.  While the flat knit uses the least amount of yarn, it is also the shortest of the knit stitches.  The e-wrap knit stitch is the tallest of the knit stitches.  And the u-wrap knit stitch is in between the 2.  So you will need to keep in mind that it will take more rows using the flat knit stitch to get the same length as with the e-wrap or u-wrap knit stitches.  A post detailing the differences in the different knit stitches is on my list of things to do this year along with learning how to post pictures on here where they all line up properly...