Knitting dolly with thick yarn

Good morning, everyone.

If I want to knit a cord using thicker yarn on a knitting dolly, do I need one with 12 hooks? Or does it not depend on the number of hooks at all, but rather on the size (diameter) of the knitting dolly?

Thank you very much!

Best regards

Hi Anton2412,

I just took a look at my (mechanical) knitting dolly. It only has 4 hooks and produces nice, narrow cords. All I have to do is turn the crank, and a beautiful cord comes out the bottom.

I’ve seen online that there are models with 4, 8, or 12 hooks. I imagine that with the same yarn, the cords would have more hollow space in the middle, making them more tube-like.

If you have thicker yarn, it should pass over the small hooks without any problems. I’d guess that the limits are set purely by the knitting dolly’s hooks. How thick is your yarn?

If you’re good with your hands, you could also build your own knitting dolly for thick yarn (using wooden ice cream spoons). That way, you could make larger hooks. I’ve found pictures and ideas online. With store-bought knitting dollies, you’re limited to those specific sizes.

Best regards, Ina

Thank you so much for your quick reply.

I only have a 4-hook knitting dolly, and with yarn that’s 170 m/100 gr. or thicker, it gets a bit tedious.
With my merino yarn (80 m/100 g), my knitting dolly got clogged up, so I couldn’t get the threads onto the hooks anymore because the yarn I’d already knitted didn’t move down through the dolly, and I couldn’t clear the blockage with the auxiliary needle either.

The knitting wheels with 8 or even 12 hooks do have larger diameters, so you might be able to make thicker cords with them if you don’t knit on all the hooks... 🤔

I’d guess it depends only on the diameter, not on the number of hooks. After all, with really thick yarn on four hooks, you can’t even get it through a standard store-bought knitting dolly.
I don’t even remember why, but we used to make our own knitting dollies with larger holes. The diameter probably wasn’t big enough otherwise, but they always only had four hooks.

For thick yarn, I use a set of double-pointed needles—just cast on 4, 6, or 8 stitches, knit the first row as usual, slide the stitches back on the needle (don’t turn the needle around), and continue knitting starting with the first stitch, the starting stitch. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to explain it any better, but it will form a tube.

@veronika-t15 thank you very much. Yes, I also suspect it’s due to the diameter, so I ordered a 12-hook knitting dolly with a suitably wide diameter just in case.

@buntemasche

Thank you so much for your instructions. Unfortunately, I can’t knit at all—I only know how to crochet. That’s why I’d like to “knit” cords using the knitting dolly 😄🙈

You can also crochet a cord that looks like it’s knitted.
To do this, use the so-called “knitting stitch” instead of regular single crochet stitches.
I do this with “extended single crochet stitches.”

@CreatOwl

That’s really interesting—I’d never heard of that knitting stitch before.

Thanks so much, I’ll give it a try!