Tool Talk: Knitting

Knitting is what's on my mind, so we're going to stick with it for a bit. Quilting, garment construction, and costume design are all in the queue, though, so you non-knitters take heart.

I'm going to tell you another thing about myself: I love tools. As legos are to an eight year old boy, all manner of crafting and sewing tools are to me: toys, yes, but also my creative limbs. I'm a sucker for quilting notions, specialized pencils, stencil sheets (of which I have about ten times as many as I've ever used), miniature things - Oh Dear Me, the miniature things! - and so on. Incidentally, it's also the reason I was able to learn to love camping with my kiddos - specialized camping gear is The Best.

Now, being a lover of Real Things, as well as a lover of tools, naturally I believe in the importance of getting the finest options available. Usually when I learn a new skill, I go a bit overboard, buying things I think I might need, but refining my needs as I go, and learn my preferences. So I have a box full of various types of stitch markers, cable needles, stitch holders, different sizes of tapestry and yarn needles, and, of course, every size and variety of knitting needle imaginable: aluminum, plastic, wood, double-pointed, circular, long straight, short straight... you get the idea. Some day I want a set of bone dpns, but I'm in no hurry. I'm not sure I'd ever even use them, but I do collect things.

My favorite needles are Knitter's Pride Dreamz needles. They are made from polished wood, so they're light-weight and comfortable. They don't get too cold or too warm, and they come  in beautiful stained colors which make me happy (except the first time I used them, because the size 7's are black and boring). The wood grabs the yarn just enough that my stitches stay secure, but not so much that it's hard to slide the work along the needle. For my birthday, I bought myself this set of interchangeable-point cable needles - I've had children slide an aluminum needle right out of my work before, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and I could imagine the same happening with a straight wooden needle. With cable needles, you can center your work on the cable and wind the points up and tuck them away - no danger!

Also, now that I learned to use the magic loop method, I don't even need double-point needles to knit tubes. However, using dpns is fun and satisfying, so I still have some of those in my box to play with. Maybe one of these days I'll try my hand at creating a video tutorial. Magic Loop will be my first offering, because it changed my knitting so much.

After needles, the most useful tool I've got is my row counter. On my first pair of socks, I depended on counting the rows to make sure they were the same size, but I must be really bad at counting rows, because they came out different sizes. Not too much, and they're socks anyway, so they're supposed to stretch to fit, but still. They were a gift, and they were crooked and dumb (thanks for that assessment, Bob), so to prevent further errors, I bought a lockable click-counter. It's also very helpful for knitting lace, or anything where you have to follow a chart. In that vein, highlighters are also helpful, as you can color the rows different colors, so you don't get confused.

I have a billion stitch markers, but I'm always losing them (read: my kids steal them). When I want them, I like the locking kind that look like mini safety pins better than the ring kind, but waste yarn works just fine, and besides which, I'm usually aware of when I'm coming to the marked spot anyway. Maybe I just haven't yet taken on the right challenge, and those stitch markers will have their day.

Next up, I need a yarn swift! How about you? What knitting tools do you use? What would you like to have?