Tips, Tricks, Hints and Hacks

After nearly 40 years of knitting and other craftings, I've found a few very helpful hacks as I guess they call such things now days. Boy, saying I've been knitting for almost 40 years makes me feel kind of old... Let's just say I'm a seasoned knitter. Some of these are probably not new ideas to my dear readers, but I hope a few are new and that all are helpful!

Over the years I have collected a fair number of patterns and only some of them are in book format, those are easy enough to keep on a shelf in my craft area. Most of the patterns I have though have come from the internet or store fliers (you know those little free leaflet ones hanging by the yarn) and trying to keep all of them organized can be a little harder. Several years ago, I got myself a very large three-ring binder and a lot of page protectors.

Voila! Easy way to keep the patterns, notes and ideas all in one place! An additional advantage to this plan is that I can easily remove a page or two to put with a "travel knitting" bag. The patterns stay neat and have a little stiffness so they are easier to handle.

I also don't have to juggle the giant binder when curled up in my favorite chair to knit while watching vintage game shows. The page protectors also work well for holding the little booklets of patterns I have. 

I can easily place a sticky note on the page protector to highlight the row I'm working on. I keep LOTS of sticky notes around and use them like I own shares in the company that makes them. They make great place markers, page markers, and I can easily keep track of how many rows are done. I jot down notes, changes or where I left off if I have to set my work down while in the middle of a tricky pattern. If I need to take a project with me, I can stick the note inside the page protector too so I don't lose it.

Speaking of taking a project with me, I always have a "go bag" ready. Unlike the criminal profilers on TV who keep a packed suitcase handy, I keep simple knitting projects in a tote bag I can easily grab on the way out the door if I am going to be a passenger on a car trip, or will be waiting for an appointment. I usually avoid complicated patterns as it can be very hard to maintain a stitch count while waiting to be called in to see the doctor or while carrying on conversations in the car. (By "conversations," I mean serving as chief navigator. I love my dear husband, but he can't find his way out of a paper bag.)

My mother made me this sturdy tote bag as a birthday gift several years ago and it has carried a large number of knitting projects all over the state of Minnesota. My nieces and nephews nicknamed it "Auntie Jeri's Magic Bag" because almost every time they would see me, I would pull some new knit toy or project from this wonderful "Magic Bag."

I also use those cheap reusable shopping bags or large zip-close bags to store works in progress that are hibernating. The projects stay clean and the yarn, needles and pattern are all in one place. For smaller projects that I only work on at home, I've found that very inexpensive drink pitchers work great for keeping everything together and clean. The opening on the lid works great for feeding the yarn through. A 2-quart pitcher is perfectly sized for a skein of yarn or two. The gallon size holds larger projects and both keep balled yarn from rolling away from me. They also keep the cats from unwinding my yarn all around the living room, up the stairs and into their water bowl. This is not a fun thing to wake up to.

I think I was "re-purposing" things long before that was a thing. A paperclip works great in a pinch as a stitch marker, as do scraps of yarn tied around a needle. These are handy ways to mark pattern repeats and changes in patterns. The coated paperclips and scraps of yarn can be color coordinated to make pattern changes even easier to follow.

Until next time, may your stash overflow and your gauge be accurate! Happy knitting!

Note the paperclip stitch marker on the upper right.