Tips 'n Tricks

Do you have a helpful hint or handy trick that will make any aspect of knitting easier? Share it! Post ideas on scrap yarn usages, stitch markers, color changing, maintaining your sanity while following a difficult pattern, etc. There is most probably someone out there that will benefit from your help. Need ideas yourself? Read others' comments--we all live and learn!

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Name: creamcake uk
Subject: knit-on-the-round
Comment: I have been addicted to knitting for nearly 50 years, and do so on the bus. I use a circular needle to knit each piece and can continue until just before the bus stops, when I just roll the garment around the needles and there are no accidents to myself or others from the needles sticking out of a bag

Name: creamcake uk
Subject: ANOTHER way to count rows
Comment: Before I begin to knit a garment, I thread a blunt needle with a length of alternative colour yarn. This is threaded horizontally between two stitches on every tenth row at a suitable place in the work

Name: Heather
Subject: Intarsia
Comment: This is the best trick for joining in a different yarn colour and not ending up with a loose stitch: hang the end of the new yarn down the front of the work (when doing a knit row.) Keep the working yarn at the back and carry on knitting. Later, you can pull the joined yarn end through to the back and finish it off. For years, I started the new yarn at the back and ended up with a loose stitch. Not now. Simple and it works for me.

Name: Norma
Subject: blocking clothes
Comment: If you are knitting many items for the same person get a seamstress's fitting form. It works perfectly for a perfect fit and is easy to size to what you need.

Name: Sue Torsberg
Subject: repeating rows
Comment: Row counters just don't work for me. I copy or print individual rows on index cards: one row on each card; then number the cards. [Yes, it takes a bit of time.] As I knit, I keep the row I am knitting or about to knit as the top card. Paper clip or rubber band the cards; I can stop any time and know right where to begin.

Name: Daniel in NY age 39
Subject: keep going
Comment: I find that when I put a project down for too long, I completely forget what I was doing! Even a simple scarf with a 3k, 3p pattern! For some reason I had an extra stitch at the beginning and end of each row. I started by doing a stockinette stich, but when I picked the project back up months later, started doing a garter stitch on the ends and it doesn't look as good. And I went too far to redo it.

Name: shani morris
Subject: row counter
Comment: I found a nifty little device from Staples, called a tally counter, for under a fiver. I find this much easier than using the traditional row counters you place on the needle. All you need to do is press the button and hey presto. It is four digits long so can count up to 9999 rows!

Name: mafanwy
Subject: sewing up
Comment: I hate sewing up knitting so I sew the seams by machine using matching color thread, it works a treat and the seams lay flat, adjust the tension just a little and lengthen the stitch length on a practice piece and see how you like it. Makes a much nicer seam on shoulders and doing armholes. Pin article before you start stitching.

Name: bianca
Subject: knitting v.s. pearling (purling)
Comment: Knitting is faster than pearling (purling), but there are less holes when u pearl.

Name: Samuel, age13
Subject: speed
Comment: ive noticed that it easier to knit faster if there is noise like tv radio somthing instead of being in a quiet room.

Name: Hunt
Subject: Time to knit
Comment: I've learned that if i watch movies and knit i end up watching the movie more than knitting so i switched over to audio books. You can listen and knit at the same time, and they make good gifts for other knitters.

Name: ginny, 12
Subject: try it!
Comment: if ur doing a pattern and there are some rows or stitches u dont understand, try it first. my bff and i were knitting a drawstring purse, and i made her do a square with purl, ss stitch, and yarnover. it was messy, but the finished piece wasn't

Name: Lonnie
Subject: Keeping your place in a pattern
Comment: I have a great board for single sheet patterns with a magnet. It works great. If I have a pattern in a book I have found that a magnet strip on both sides of the page keeps the place. I use the magnet strip that is used for frig magnets. It is easy to find in the hardware store.

Name: Patricia Schwarzin
Subject: Casting on for knitting
Comment: The way I used to cast on I either ran out of yarn or had lots left over. Just for the heck of it I tried making a chain of as many stitches as needed and then knitted back. It works great

Name: the knifty knitter
Subject: 2 many projects (at once)
Comment: i realy love starting scarves and i hate 2 finish them. i usually end up pulling the needles out of a half way done scarf and starting another project that will never be finished. i found out that only allowing yourself one or two things at a time leads to more finished projects being done.

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