Knitting Tool Kit

I live in more than one place. Besides the usual bus trips, outings, and places where I may have to wait, my knitting projects routinely move from place to place with me.

Don't hate me, but I can't remember the last time I needed a small knitting tool and didn't have one at hand in my project bag.

I love tools but hate to stop what I'm doing to go find the one I need. A few years ago, soon after I picked up knitting again, I developed a traveling knitting tool kit that I keep with each active project.

I love my little kits. They feed my manias for tools, little containers, and organization in one compact solution to my laziness.

I include a variety of stitch markers in my kits; locking, split, and plain. More and more I just use the locking ones. Someday I'll probably weed out the others. I'm good at the initial set-up but not always on the up-keep.

I also have a tube holding a few T-pins (there should be more than this), two straight tapestry needles and one bent-tip, plus a needle threader.

And I have a small box of coiless pins in two sizes. I mostly use these to catch dropped stitches until I can get back to pick them up or mark where I found the error I'm tinking back to.

With the safety pins and tapestry needles I can also seam my projects without having to go get more tools. I haven't made anything with seams for a while, though, as all my recent sweaters I knit top-down.

The little containers come from the local Storables branch. I love stores like this and could spend way too much time and money on stuff to hold stuff. Luckily, I don't accumulate lots of stuff I don't use -- other than maybe stitch markers.

The kit of crochet hooks comes from Plymouth Yarns. These I use to pick up dropped stitches, unless I'm too lazy to get one out and just fiddle it with my knitting needle. The hooks work better for me, especially on a small gauge.

Actual crocheting of edgings and such happens with my nice wooden hooks stored in my needle file box.

Besides eight sizes on four two-ended hooks, the kit includes a medium and small darning needle. The small box fits nicely in the pouch and keeps the hooks untangled from everything else.

Gingher makes the compact clippers. They have very sharp blades and don't catch on the other tools or my fingers. One of the cats does have a thing for black plastic and needs to be watched around the clippers.

I also have a solar calculator, a needle-sizer/ruler/gauge check, a tape measure, one or two rarely used stitch holders, and a leather thimble for when my left middle finger complains about my style of continental knitting on small, sharp metal needles.

Most of the time the tape measure lives in the larger bag of an in-progress project along with a pencil, a photocopy of the pattern, and a few 5x8 cards for notes. For bigger projects I'll have a binder for pattern, swatches, and notes.

I made up three of these kits originally, then later added a fourth. At times I wish I had five or six. I usually have way too many projects going at once.

I use clear bags for my projects. When you have several projects started and in various stages of activity at one time, the clear bags save time and searching.

When I set up a new project or move an old UFO back into the WIP queue, I drop one of my tool kits in the bag with the yarn and needles. A project in a time out gets its tool kit taken away.

My organizing mania tends to be all or nothing but keeps me better sorted than the average knitter I know. I have no kids to wander off with my pins and tape measures, but they still evaporate and need to be replaced regularly. It's the nature of small, needed things, no matter how organized you are.

Comments

[Colleen]

What a great idea, Karen!

[Anne S.]

I have some Fiskar locking clippers, but the idea of having a cap, rather than a knife-sharp point, is nice.

My two kits stay in their knitting bags, which usually works, but last week I ended up without a tape measure ... I'd left it with some WIP socks.

Now I clearly have an excuse to go to the Container Store - thanks!!

[Janet]

I love it when people share their tools and tips.

Thanks for giving me a few new ideas too. The calculator is ingenious.