in part

I have dial-up and am taking advantage of a particularly speedy connection at the moment (wink).  So this is just a quick note to give you a few sites that I've found last night that illustrates some techniques that I've used and had tried to explain the other day in the post on wrapping for a good foundation.

This website is very good, a comprehensive overview of getting started with both round looms and double-sided rakes (long looms, or rectangular looms).  Check it!  Toward the bottom of the Dreamlooms's site, you will see a section titled "Standard Cast-on Stitch".  This is the figure-8 wrap to which I referred the other day.  It is a basic stitch used in long loom wrapping.  The site goes on to list and demonstrate a few other wraps that will yield different stitches.

This website, Decor Accents, is a great resource to have bookmarked!  Most of the sites that focus on manufacturing and selling looms, also explain info that is essential for getting started.  This is because they want you to USE the product they sell you.  So, if you are wanting some basic info, you might want to check sites where they sell the looms.

The Knitting Paddle is uberkewl!  This site is graphic rich with a wonderful demo that is  very easy to follow.  It does take awhile to load tho, if you have dial-up; so be sure to allot enough time and resources.  Once it fully loads, it is very very good.  I would highly recommend viewing the demo.  You need adobe reader, most systems come with this as a default, so if you are unsure if your own computer has it; try clicking on 'demo' to activate it and see what happens.  Chances are that your system already has adobe reader and you won't have to load it!  If you cannot see the full demo, then you might need adobe, so click on the adobe icon and download it.  If you have problems with this, I might be able to help you, so feel free to contact me.

The Knitting Paddle demo takes you thru the entire process from forming a slip knot to begin the wrap, to showing and explaining the figure-8 wrap.  And it actually shows you a very similar step to what I use on the rectangular loom to transition from the end first wrapped row to begin the second wrapped row.  The purple rectangular loom differs from the Knitting Paddle; as the purple rectangular loom does not have the same exact configuration of end pegs, in the middle between your two rows of pegs that you are wrapping.

Please pay particular attention to the Knitting Paddle's demo's first 9 steps.  These explain a similar process to yield a good wrapping technique which will result in a firm edge with no straggles and loops!  After that, you are actually moving on to looming the rest of the project and may use whatever wrap you would like!  You could use the same wrap for the rest of the garment, or use the wrap that the Knitting Paddle's demo shows from steps 10 to 14, or any other sort of wrap (such as those found on the other pages I've listed here~~Dreamboards &/or Decor Accents).

I will put it all together for you, but I wanted to list these sites because they actually show you clearly what I attempted to; but was not able to focus my web-cam clearly enough.  I am new to the web-cam and haven't used it enough to be able to take clear, well lighted pictures that show you exactly what I mean.  For that, I certainly apologize; as it can be just as frustrating to not understand the process as it is to not clearly explain it!

Next entry, putting it all together!