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: 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

Name: Nancy
Subject: garter st and st st
Comment: I can NEVER remember which way is which when knitting garter stitch and stockinette stitch. The only thing I've come up with to help me remember is:

Knit Every Row with gartER stitch.

AlternaTE [between K and P] every row with stockinetTE stitch.

Hope this helps someone else as well!
Happy knitting!!

Name: Samantha
Subject: Baby Blankets
Comment: I find that because I am only 12, and I like to knit my mom said, do it the easy way, in which case just do a simple small, blanket and personalize it according to what it's for.

Name: Carly
Subject: Keeping Track of Rows
Comment: I have tons of stray earrings floating around the house, so I use them to mark the row I'm working on. I usually just print my patterns off the internet and stick my earring through the paper by the row I'm working on. If I lose the earring, I can always see where the holes have been punched and grab another one.

Name: Carly
Subject: Holding Your Needles
Comment: I'm so relieved I'm not the only one that holds my left needle vertically. My husband calls my belly-button my "needle-holder" because I hold my left needle vertically with the top in my belly button. I actually thought I wasn't going to be able to master circulat needles because of this but for some reason I can do it. But I can't knit with straight needles without supporting the left one with my stomach. I think it's great to hear that so many people hold their needles differently.

Name: Lyddie
Subject: Re: Alison Hiscock's style knitting
Comment: I hold my left needle like that too, sometimes. I hold it vertically, and I usually pinch it with the my right hand as I work with my right hand. I think they call this right-hand doing all the work and the left needle being wedged against your underarm or leg "German" or "ambulatory [as in walking or traveling]." I used to know how to do another holding style (about 20 years), but can't recall anymore. This way now works for me.

Name: Sonja Milbourn
Subject: Stitch Counters
Comment: I'm brand new to knitting, but am so glad that I found these nifty little stitch counters early on!!!

Name: Jenny
Subject: Patterns
Comment: I type the patterns I really like in excell then print them to fit on a four by five note card. That way I can have a small "photo album" in my bag with all my favorite projects. I also laminate them so that a wet-erase marker can check off the rows!!

Name: Fran
Subject: Storing MILES of yarn
Comment: I sorted my yarn skeins by color families, putting each color family into a large vacuum storage bag. (Blues, greens, reds, etc.) I sucked out the air, and stacked them on a high shelf in the garage.
A couple of long bungee cords around the edge of the shelf are pulled up to two strong hooks on the wall to keep everything in place.
Works great for me, as I live in a mobile home with limited space for hobby stuff. They are water, light and bug-proof and easily acessible with the stepladder.

Name: Rosie
Subject: Cast on edge too tight?
Comment: Remember this: if your cast on is too tight, you need to make more space Between stitches; you do NOT need to make bigger stitches. Casting on over a larger needle, or two needles, only makes the caston loopier not looser. So, when you slide a newly caston stitch onto the needle, [1] Don't pull it tight and up close to the stitch before it. [2]Leave a bit of space Between stitches, and hold that space with your finger while making the next stitch. This will give you a much more elastic cast on and keep you from having such a tight line at the cast on edge.

Name: Alison
Subject: Dropped stitches
Comment: As an 'advanced beginner' I sometimes have problems especially on DPN's with dropping stitches and picking them up again.

I find these help:
1) Carry a smaller size needle than the ones you are using - a size or two smaller is fine, and a DPN ideal. It is much easier to pick up dropped stitches with a smaller needle. (once they are picked up knit the stitches on to the correct needles)
2) Carry a crochet hook with you, also smaller than the needles you are using. If you need to pick up a stitch that has 'run' down a few rows, this makes it much easier.
3) When knitting stockinette, it's much easier to pick up dropped stitches that have 'run' down a few rows, if you have the 'right' or knit side of the work facing you. It is then easier to use the crochet hook and pick up the stich row by row, weaving it in until you reach the top.

Tip 1, I got from my mother, tip 2 from a knitting website - (I can't remember which), and tip 3 I discovered for myself.

Name: jo
Subject: storing yarn
Comment: I use an over the door shoe holder that has 24 pockets to keep my yarn in. I copy the pattern and fold it up and put it and the yarn I need in a pocket. When I'm ready to start a new project I go to my closet door and chose a new project. It is also a great incentive when you look at all the yarn every day.

Name: Sherry
Subject: sock cast on
Comment: Using a long-tail cast on, cast on twice the number of stitches called for in your pattern. Row 1, K 2 Tog around and then continue the ribbing as called for in the pattern. This makes a good elastic edge for socks, especially for children.

Name: TJ
Subject: Knitting notes
Comment: I use a small journal to keep my knitting patterns in. It fits easily in my knitting bag (which goes with me literally everywhere). I write out the pattern in pen, row by row. Then use pencil to mark lightly which row I'm on, most especially when I have to set the project down for a bit. Then, I can simply erase the mark without erasing the pattern, and I don't have a whole sheaf of papers or a large notebook that won't fit in my bag.

Name: sissyshame
Subject: knitting baby booties
Comment: When knitting baby booties I knit both of the pair on the same needles at the same time, just use 2 balls of yarn and work one row at a time from each. When some patterns call for turning your work without finishing a row, just work that bootie and when you are finally able to finish the row catch the other bootie up. I have found that this saves time and makes the booties exactly the same.

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