I love getting new tools that are easy to pack up and take with me on a last minute road trip and the French Knitter from Clover USA  is one of those tools. In fact, the samples I created for this post were actually created in the car, on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

From the website:

Make dazzling jewelry with bead and jewels using different type of materials such as yarns, nylon, embroidery threads and wire. The tool comes with 3 interchangeable heads: 4-peg, 5-peg, and 6-peg plus a hook for stitching.

 

 

As with all Clover USA products complete instructions come in the package along with all of the tools needed to use the tool.

I did find it took a little bit of practice to get the first two rows to stay on the pegs but once my knitted piece had a little weight to it there was not problem keeping everything nice and tidy.

 

 

I started out by seeing what a difference using the different heads made.

Using the same yarn I used the 6 peg head (left), 5 peg head (center), and then the 4 peg head (right).

Without looking too closely at my mistake on the left can you see the difference the different pegs make in the finished piece?

 

 

My husband needed to make a business trip to Columbus, OH – about a 2 hour trip from our  home, and I decided to go with him. I gathered up these supplies and a little bowl for the beads and hit the road.

 

 

 

I was only going to knit a short section to see how the tool worked so that I could share it with you.

 

 

 

But I got a little carried away.  Once I got rolling I found it fun and easy to just keep going.

I added beads on every other row and I used the 5 peg head.

Now, how do you know which head to use with with yarn and how often to add beads? Well, that’s all up to you. You can experiment by creating a little swatch before creating a longer piece or you can simply take out a few inches and start over. I found it easy to take the knitted yarn off the pegs and UN-knit it so that I could start over.

One tip I would recommend is that you color one of the pegs when adding beads in an every other row type pattern just to help you keep yourself straight. I used an orange Sharpie and you can probably see it in the second photo.

 

 

 

And if you aren’t quite sure what to do with your finished pieces there is also a nifty project book available from Design Originals.

Over on my own blog I have a post French Knitter Jewelry – A Magikal Necklace sharing how I used my sample above to create a fun necklace. I hope you’ll stop by to check it out.