Tutorial : Rag Knitting

You can use any kind of fabric for this, even t-shirts or bedsheets. In this example I'm using plain muslin bed sheets from IKEA ($1.99 for a twin size). To make strips for a #19 needle, cut slits about 1 1/2" apart across the bottom. For Really Big knitting on a #35 needles, cut them 3" apart across the bottom.

Rip from each slit so you have a pile of strips like this:

Now cut slits in each end about 1” long like this:

So now you have strips with slits in the end.

Feed the end of one strip through the slit in the next strip:

Make sure that as you form a ball, you always poke the end of the strip attached to the ball through the slit first! Like this:

Now take the other end of the strip (not attached to the ball) and feed it through the remaining slit, like this:

Now carefully pull on the strip you just fed through the slit…keep pulling and you’ll get this:

Pull a little more until they are snug like this:

Ta-da! Keep doing that and you’ll end up with a big ball of rag yarn:

If you need to rip more “yarn” to add to your WIP, work backwards from your working yarn. If you try to attach a new ball of yarn to existing WIP, you will have no free end to pull through the slit, so you’ll have to tie a knot.  It’s not the end of the world, but for a completely knot-free piece it’s something to think about…