This week, I happened upon a new product from Lion Brand Yarns. It’s called “Instaknit” and it’s a skein of yarn that comes with a pre-made set of loops. Instead of casting on, you just slide the loops onto a needle and begin knitting. The loops have a white thread on the bottom side which is supposed to help you keep the stitches lined up instead of twisting.
Let’s play point/counterpoint.
Point: if you hate to cast on or don’t know how, you can use this yarn to skip the process. (The Lion Brand website has a silly video showing people getting very frustrated with their cast-on — nothing like manufactured angst!) It’s very easy to slide the loops onto the needle and just start knitting.
Counterpoint: You have to use this yarn and only this yarn unless/until you learn how to cast on. According to the Lion Brand website, it’s the same as Thick and Quick: Category 6/Super Bulky and knits around 2 1/4 sts per inch on a size 13. It’s 80% acrylic, 19% wool, and 1% polyester. That is pretty limiting.
Point: This would be an easy way to teach someone how to knit; once they master the knit stitch, then it’s easy to learn the knitted-on cast on later with normal yarn.
Counterpoint: You don’t get to choose among different kinds of cast-ons. Different methods of casting on create different levels of elasticity and look different. The loops appear to be sewn down with white thread. If your gauge is different from the standard gauge, you might end up with bunching or pulling across the first few rows since there’s no give in the cast on. You are also limited in width if you want to start with more stitches than there are premade loops.
In the instructional video, the knitter slips a certain number of stitches onto the needle and lets the tail with the remaining loops dangle. After they cast off, they sew in the loopy end with loops intact; this makes for a somewhat bulky finish.
My verdict: this might be useful when you first teach someone to knit or if someone is a very casual knitter and is happy using only this yarn for a few projects. Maybe it will be a kind of gateway causing someone to want to learn more about knitting, but I just don’t see this having much utility except for those scenarios.
