Knitting with one hand?

[FauxChina]

Hey, I'm a new member but I've been lurking for quite some time, I did a search and haven't found any results, as I'm sure mine is not a question that gets asked every day, so here it goes...  I'm missing my left arm above the elbow, I've been quite interested in learning to knit, but I'm not sure if it will be feesable, if anybody has any tips or ideas I'd greatly appreciate it, also would anybody know if a knitting machine would be "one arm user friendly"?  Thanks in advance.

[aeronberry]

Hi!  I'm a beginner at knitting, so I might not be the best person to answer.  I think you could knit with regular needles if you could rig up some kit of clamp or something on a table that could hold the left needle (but that could be released easily since the left needle eventually becomes the right and so on).  Do you know anyone who knits?  I think it'd be helpful to watch them do it fairly slowly so that you could see exactly what your right hand would need to be doing.
There are round knitting looms - I've never actually used them, but I'm guessing they'd work because you could set it on your lap or a table.  Knitting's so popular right now and I've seen those looms everywhere.  I know Michael's had them advertised recently.  I've also see knitting machines that you use to knit projects really quickly (you just move a little train looking thing back and forth and it takes care of the rest).  They're look interesting, but they're probably expensive and it kind of takes the fun out of it.
Hope this helps!  Let us know if you find anything that works!
-aeronberry

[starlings]

Skacel - the maker of addi turbo needles - has a new product called the "Addi Express". It's a hand-cranked knitting mill that will make tubes or flat pieces. It fastens to a table and you turn a crank on the right side of it to create a knitted fabric. You can see a picture of it here on their "new products" page (click the + to get a better view):
http://www.skacelknitting.com/body_needles.html

I haven't seen it anywhere but on the Skacel site, but you could probably order one through any store that carries Addi products.

[jules]

My sister prefers to knit with long, straight needles so she can tuck one under one of her armpits instead of  holding it--essentially one armed knitting.  Her mother-in-law taught her this way, so I'm sure if you went to a yarn/knit store and found and old school (read:older )knitter, I bet they would know of this technique.  Good Luck! 

[urraca]

The question came up in a French forum. I did a research then and here is what I found:

You could use clamps like these:

http://www.dynamic-living.com/clamp_it.htm
http://www.2innovative.net/knitone/index.htm
http://www.sdc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=en/hip/odi/documents/helpYourself/chap8.shtml&hs=pyp
(click on knitting or scroll down)

As said above, you could try holding the left needle under the armpit. I am an armpit knitter myself, as most Spaniards are, but I only hold the right needle that way. But in Spain a lot of people hold both needles tucked under the armpit.

And you could try Tunisian crochet. I haven't tried it myself, but the resulting fabric is halfway between crochet and knitting. You could obtain tension for the thread by wrapping it around your neck (as Portuguese / Peruvian / Greek knitters do) or over a safety pin pinned to your sweater higher than your hand (tension is caused by gravity).

http://crochetme.com/Apr_May_2005/reads_tunisian.html
http://www.stitchguide.com/stitches/crochet/stitch_pages/cro_tunisian.html
http://www.heritageshoppe.com/heritage/stitches/tunisian.html

Hope this helps.

Urraca

[silvermam]

I have several of the knitting looms and they do work very nicely I often hold one between my legs to wrap but prefer to hold it when I knit. But you can do it one handed (just dug one out tp try ) if you want to try you could try one of the knifty knitters. I bought the set but have only really used the little blue one to make slippersocks. Allthough it says you can make hats etc on the rest I find there is to much of a gap between stitches.  I've added a bunch of links to makers of looms patterns etc. There are several yahoo groups about loomknitting too

Hope this helps

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/how-to-loom-knit.html

http://www.amishloom.com/Instructions4.html

http://www.loomroom.com/knittingfreepatterns.html

http://www.robertscrafts.com/projects/projects.php?prdindex=kniftyknitter&dsp=project&idnum=17

http://www.dreamlooms.com/dreamRing/dreamRing.htm

http://cputzier.tripod.com/id8.html

http://www.knittinglooms.bigstep.com

http://decoraccentsinc.com/loom_stitches.html

http://www.cindwoodcrafts.com/index.php

http://www.knittingatknoon.com/freepattern.html

http://hummersley.7h.com/id18.htm

http://altamistalpacas.com/alpaca-fiber-products-looms.htm#knittinglooms

http://kwon.relatedhelp.com/Iris/

http://finniwig.com/knittingloom.htm#Knitting%20Noddy%2036%20peg%20Round

http://www.llamajunction.com/ourstore.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~dickrobinson/begin.htm

http://www.oldfashionedknittingboard.com/

http://yarngear.com/looms/projects1.htm

[FauxChina]

Thank you so much for the ideas guys, I really appreciate it.

[rmj318]

Hi....I'm a one handed knitter. I had a juvenile stroke when I was two years old and have limited use of my left hand, since then. I knit all the time. I tuck the needle between my arm and side and just knit away. I have difficulty using circular needles (although I do use them on occasion)  but I have no trouble knitting with straight ones. Jules is right....if you can find an older knitter, they should be able to help. I've only seen one other person knit the way I do and she learned from her mother, as a child in Wales. If you need more description or encouragement....le t me know.