Skip to main content

Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day 6

Day Six:  A Tool To Covet Write about your favorite knitting or crochet (or spinning, etc) tool. It can either be a tool directly involved in your craft (knitting needles or crochet hook) or something that makes your craft more pleasurable – be it a special lamp, or stitch markers.

Is it an item that you would recommend to others, and if so for which applications/tasks do you think it is most suited. Conversely, do you have a tool/accessory that you regret buying? Why does it not work for you?


     If I look at everything I've either been given or purchased myself, I think I have to choose my swift and ball winder as the most valuable tools.  I use them quite often, even more now that I've become a yarn snob and I plan to use the more since I started dying yarn and have aspirations to spin.  These both will involve hanks which will then need to be caked before knitting can commence.  The usefulness is not the only attribute here, the swift is an Amish style swift made of a very pretty hard wood by Chiaogoo. 

So for me its also beautiful to look at.  It is modular, so I can take it apart and put it away, so it takes up very little room at all.  (Which is also great since I have a limited craft space.)  I would highly recommend this swift.  It was inexpensive, its totally collapsible, easy to use and pretty.  After the swift and ball winder I think my next most used tool, which I don't have enough of, of course, is the Boye row counter. 

I got two of them when I first started knitting.  (They came in a "beginners" tool ensemble with some tip protectors and three sizes of stitch holders.)  I use it for my bigger projects when I have to count rows or large numbered repeats.  Its with my dissertation sweater now.  I need to find some more, they are so handy.  I was recently gifted some beaded stitch markers which prompted me to get the supplies to make some of my own.  I use stitch markers like they're going out of style.  If I have a lace pattern, a lot of times I'll place a marker after each repeat.  It saves so much time not having to fix mistakes since I'm checking my count after every repeat.  So far, I cant say there is a tool I don't use or like.  I have found that my wrists and hands don't cramp up as much if I knit flat on circular needles.  (I found that out by accident.  My straights wouldn't fit in my project bag so I made whatever it was on a circ.)  Eventually I may get rid of a lot of my straight needles.  Most of the patterns I knit are in the round so I'm using either circs. or DPNs.  The projects I do knit flat tend to be larger things that require the length of a circular needle.  I still like my short little lucky 6s for dishcloths though.  Incase you didn't see pictures of my first foray into stitch marker making here are the ones that turned out halfway decent:

Happy Crafting!
-Q     

Comments

  1. Your markers are lovely. I love making markers. Need to get some more supplies, or new beads. I am kind of burned out on the beads I have lol!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YOP: Week 30 Lewis County Fair 24

      I wanted to do a quick update about the Fair.  We kept it really low key this year.  I entered 10 items into the fair and we only went one day to just look around.  We refrained from rides and excessive amounts of fair food.  So, onto my entries: I entered: a sewn tote bag, which I think I blogged about a few weeks ago.  It got first place then went on to win Best in Show. Sewn Tote with Best in Show ribbon I also entered the beaded shawl I finished in June, that also won a blue ribbon and went on to receive Best in Show. Beaded Holden mixed among other Best in Show items Six of my other items also won blue ribbons: Liara's socks Mandy Cowl Killer Queen Cowl Clean Windmill Dishcloth set Sacket's Harbor Mittens and Drops of Spring Fingerless Mitts The second place ribbon I received for my Hum Beanie is also in this picture.  Then I received third place for Sunset Hat. The first and second place entries for this class are in this picture ...

YOP: Week 39

     In anticipation of the Boo Knits MKAL starting on October 1st I got out my Dye For Yarn so I could wind it with my new yarn winder.  I quickly found that the winder I chose is a piece of crap.  The yarn guide doesn't stay in place and drops while winding which feeds the yarn directly into the open gears.  The spindle base also isn't large enough to accommodate 100 gram skeins.  It is nice and quiet and it didn't roll backward when I had to stop often because the yarn wasn't cooperating with me either.  The hank was extra twisted and crinkly in one spot so it kept getting stuck on itself and needed to be teased apart.  Overall it was a very negative winding experience.  I just went back to Amazon to read the reviews on the winder to see if it was just my winder.  Nope, each review said the same thing.  I'm not sure why I didn't think to read the reviews before I ordered this one, I usually do.  I have a different winde...

YOP: Week 52

      As the year comes to a close, I've been looking at my queue and starting to plan out a few projects for 2025.  After having to cold sheep for the majority of this past year, I'm going into next year with some guidelines.  When I purchase yarn, I really want to stick to purchasing for specific patterns.  I took advantage of Miss Babs annual gratitude sale and purchased specifically for two patterns.  I also want to continue to knit from stash whenever possible.  I have paired up yarn with patterns for several and they've been moved up in my queue.     I'll have more time, so I plan to participate in several swaps in 2025.  I'll be getting yarn from these so I'm going to try to stick to swaps only for "unplanned" stash acquisition.  I have several carry-over projects I didn't get to this year, which seems to be a theme every year.  So tentatively this is my meager list for 2025: - Butterfly--Papillon  with Urth Ya...