In needle knitting, to make flat stockingnette fabric, the instructions are to knit one row, purl one row, and repeat.  In loom knitting, you simply knit each and every row.  To knit garter stitch flat on needles, you knit each and every row.  Garter stitch on a loom is made by alternating one row of knit, one row of purl, and repeat.  This works because structurally, a knit stitch also appears as purl on the opposite side, and vice versa.  

Written flat needle knitting patterns can be converted to flat loom knitting patterns.  You'll read the front side rows as is, working the pegs from right to left, then for the wrong side rows, as you work the pegs from left to right, you will need to change the knits to purls and purls to knits.  Changing the same flat pattern to a tube on a loom is a little trickier, as you will need to find out which edge stitches to eliminate from the written pattern, and strip it down to the pattern repeat only.

On looms, it can be easier to follow a stitch pattern chart.  In needle knitting, charts are read from right to left on front side rows, and from right to left on wrong side rows, while changing knits to purls and vice versa.  Charts are also read from bottom row to top, just like your knitting comes off the needles and looms.  Since most charts map the front side of the work, with loom knitting, you just knit the stitch pattern as is, since you're always working on the front side, there is no need to change the knits and purls on wrong size rows.

CIRCULAR KNITTING:  Read stitch pattern chart from right to left on every row.  Sometimes the pattern repeats don't fit perfectly on the number of pegs around your loom, so use your best judgment, but always start each round on peg 1 at the beginning of the pattern repeat.

FLAT KNITTING:  When knitting back and forth in flat panels, sometimes you'll wrap towards the left, and alternate rows towards the right. As you work each peg, read the chart exactly as you are looking at the loom.  If you start knitting the first peg on the right, start the chart with the first stitch on the right. If you like to start knitting with the first peg on the left, start the chart there also.  With most simple knit-purl patterns, you can follow the chart going left or right on any row, so long as you knit in the same direction as you read the chart.

STITCH PATTERNS:  This chart represents 12 pegs across.  Each color band is a separate stitch pattern, and each block represents 1 peg, K=Knit, P=Purl.  Some are single row repeats, others patterns repeat in multiple rows.  Each highlighted area is the pattern repeat across the row/round.

If desired, add the stitches on the left side of your knitting (show in gray) to make the left and right sides symmetrical in your flat fabric patterns.  You will repeat only the black stitches, then add the gray stitches at the very end, on the left side only.   To figure out how many stitches to cast on, multiply the number of repeats, then add the edge stitches.  For example, the "single chevron" is a multiple of 8 pegs, plus 1, so if you repeat 8x3=24 pegs, you will need to add one more, making the total 25 pegs.

In flat fabrics, using the "skip-every-other-end-peg" style as shown in the KK booklets creates a chain-like edge up the sides.   This is the equivalent of a "slipped-stitch edge" in needle knitting.  These edge stitches are extra stitches on the left and right sides of your work, which are separate from your pattern stitches, so you will need to add 2 additional stitches to your total number.  In the "single chevron" example above, you'll add 2 more pegs, bringing the total to 27. 

*These reversible patterns look similar on the front and back, and lay flat, unlike stockingnette which curls.  This is due to the physics of the stitches, so stitch patterns with a relatively equal number of knits and purls across each row tend to lay flatter.

STITCH NAME

Stockingnette

K

Garter Stitch*

K

P

1 x 1 Ribbing*

K

P

K

1 x 2 Ribbing*

K

K

P

K

K

2 x 2 Ribbing*

K

K

P

P

K

K

Seed Stitch*

K

P

P

K

Rice Stitch

K

P

K

K

Moss Stitch*

K

P

K

P

P

K

P

K

Box Stitch*

P

P

K

K

P

P

P

P

K

K

P

P

K

K

P

P

K

K

K

K

P

P

K

K

Mistake Ribbing*

K

K

K

P

K

K

K

P

K

P

P

P

K

P

K

K

K

P

K

K

K

P

K

P

P

P

K

P

Little Checks*

K

K

K

P

P

P

K

K

K

K

K

K

P

P

P

K

K

K

K

K

K

P

P

P

K

K

K

K

K

K

P

P

P

K

K

K

P

P

P

K

K

K

P

P

P

P

P

P

K

K

K

P

P

P

P

P

P

K

K

K

P

P

P

P

P

P

K

K

K

P

P

P