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: heather
Subject: keeping your yarn from the kids
Comment: My son, 8, loves to help me knit, and his favorite is to unwind the skein so I will make him something. My daughter, 6, just steals the yarn, and hordes it until she had enough to demand a blanket. To keep yarn untangled, and unstolen, teach your kids to knit and crochet. If they can learn to read, they can learn to knit. Teaching them allows you to spend quality time together, and it makes it less likely they'll want your yarn, because they have theirs. I don't have to tell you you will cherish their first scarf.

Name: heather
Subject: keeping things neat
Comment: To keep all the little things a knitter needs in the knitting bag from getting lost, get an inexpensive resealable box, like the ones used to store leftovers. Put your measuring tape, cable needles, stitch markers, bandaides, scissors, counters, and a small bottle of lotion inside, along with dpns. Then, get a Bailey's canister, and put all of your knitting needles inside.

Name: Sultan
Subject: Keeping track of complicated patterns
Comment: I've found that the only way to keep track of complicated patterns is to use a small piece of a sticky post-it note with a large arrow on which I move along the pattern as I'm knitting.

Name: Emily
Subject: keeping patterns neet
Comment: Print out or photocopy patterns and place them in plastic sheet protectors (the kind that fit in 3 ring binders). You can then write on the sheet protector with a dry erase marker as you work on a project and just erase when you are done. This is a convenient way to keep track of your progress on a project, and it keeps your knitting books looking good as new.

Name: Tera
Subject: Learning Pattern
Comment: I have found it is better to write down (or typed into a computer) the pattern before I start my project. I even break down complex patterns rows in to three or four lines. Yes, this takes time, but save so much time when working with the yarn.

Name: Sue
Subject: Keeping track of where you are.
Comment: To follow a more complicated pattern, get a stack of 3 x 5 cards and write ONE row of the pattern on each card. As you finish each row, put a mark on that card and turn to the next card. Your "mark" can be numbers (1..2..3..etc) so you know how many patterns you have knitted, or any symbol you choose. I sometimes keep the cards in order by punching a small hole and tying yarn through them.

Name: Becky/Gresham, OR
Subject: Storing markers/counters
Comment: Hi - just found this site & haven't read all the pages of great tips yet. I store my stitch markers, row counters, large-eyed sewing needle, thimble in one of the little Tupperware "midget" containers. The lids seal real tight & I use the sewing needle to find & bring up the right size marker very easily as they all sift to the bottom. It's amazing how many items one little midget will hold.

Name: Frances
Subject: Scarves
Comment: Hi
I have found that knitting 4 rows of ribbon or ostrich wool and then 2 of a plain wool stops the scarf from rolling into itself.
They also look very nice, take less of the expensive wool. I also like to cast on/off with the plain wool.
I love this site.
Thank you so much for it.
Frances

Name: caitlyn
Subject: needle holding
Comment: i hold my right needle in my underarm when i'm sitting down

Name: "Sarah"
Subject: Ribbon Yarn
Comment: Too often people buy ribbon yarn because it looks cool, only to, alas, realize that all the character of the yarn is lost after knitting. Luckily, there is a solution: If you knit with ribbon yarn in the "drop" stitch pattern, the yarn is exposed and you can see its ribbon-like quality :)

Name: Ty
Subject: Quick hats
Comment: a nice way to get a quick quota of hats is to make them on some really big needles, and since i am an advanced beginner teen, and sell hats custom order i like the patterns i modify

Name: animal crazy
Subject: Counting
Comment: I love using row counters! But, I never could remember if the # on the row counter was the row I just did or the next one. So I cut out a small piece of paper, and wrote last row done. Then taped it to the row counter, and I haven't lost track of a row since!

PS (You could put NEXT ROW TO DO or something like that.)

Name: Josie
Subject: more tips
Comment: hi i'm now 13 but i have posted comments here before....if you are on a deadline for a project, or if u have missed a deadline (both of which i am experiencing lol) then you need to take a whole day to yourself, maybe by a pool, a lake, in your bedroom, whereever you can get some peace and quiet to just knit...bring all your deadline or overdeadline projects, and that one project that you are just making cuz u want to....knit for 10 min on the project with a closer deadline, then 10 min on the w/e project and then 10 min on the farther away deadline...continue to do this for about and hour or so, then take a 10 min break then continue...this really helps to get some of your projects made and it lets you work on the project or projects that you are just making them b/c you can...if u are making a baby blanket, make it simple....no big cables and fancy seed stitch...cast on 100 or so stitches (for size 13 yarn and 11 needles, i only needed 70 to make the b.b. long enough up and down not side to side like normal)..i am making socks on 2 needles (i love www.knitty.com) a baby blanket and a teddy bear, and i have done this quite a few times....hope this helps someone...laterzz
Happy KNITTING!!!
Josieeee

Name: Bethany
Subject: Storing Yarn
Comment: I have many storage places for my yarn, but one of my favorites is in the big zippered bags that comforters or mattress pads come in. The bags have gussetted sides, so a skein of yarn fits just right. And the bags are clear, which makes it easy to see which yarns are in which bags. I've got 6 or so of these bags, and have the yarn categorized by type.

Name: knittin dolly
Subject: neat edges
Comment: always slip the first stitch on every row and you will get nice neat edges and is easier to sew up as well

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