Cable Needles

If you still have the old style plastic hair picks (or beg a couple from your hairdresser), they make good cable needles. You can push them into the yarn while holding the cable stitches and while you store the needles between making cables.

Center Wound Yarn Balls

Another way to make a center pull yarn ball: Start with medicine pill bottle, put end of yarn inside and snap the lid closed. Wind yarn around bottle keeping it below the bottle cap. When finished, remove bottle releasing the end of yarn and pull from center. The ball will stand and not roll when using.

Know Your Stash

For those of you detailed enough to upload your stash on Ravelry, you can save your listing to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking the small Excel icon on the right hand side (next to the Search button) of the stash section in your Ravelry notebook. It makes a nice, compact printout to know what you already own. An example is shown.

Buttonbands

To stabilize the button band of a cardigan, sew clear small buttons on the inside of the band behind the decorative buttons that are on the outside of your cardigan

Yarn Bobbins

To make yarn bobbins, cut 2”x4” pieces from plastic canvas. Then cut a notch in both the top and bottom of the piece. Wrap your yarn around the canvas using the notches as guides. You can secure the ends of the yarn through the holes in the plastic canvas.

Easy Fair Isle

If you have a hard time knitting Fair Isle using both hands, use this easy method instead. Knit one round using just color A and slip the other stitches with yarn in back making sure they are stretched out just enough to lay flat. Then knit the next round using just Color B and slip the color A stitches purlwise with yarn in back. Two rounds knitted this way covers 1 row in a charted design.

Neater Cuffs on Sleeves

To make neat cuffs on a sweater that is knit flat, either knit the sleeves down to the cuffs or use a provisional cast on and knit from the top of the cuffs to the top of the sleeve. Sew the seams using a mattress stitch. Then pick up the cuff stitches and knit in the round using double pointed needles or 2 circulars so you have a seamless cuff.

Slip Stitch Edges

Use a slip stitch as a decorative front edge on sweaters or the edge of scarves and afghans but never use it where you are going to sew a seam such as on sweater front and back or sleeve pieces. It’s not a strong enough edging to hold a seam stable.

Long Tail Cast-On

The most common cast on method is the long tail. To make sure you have enough yarn, use the general rule of 4 times the length of the hem of whatever you are knitting as your guide.

Yarn Storage

Short of yarn storage space? Use fish stringer lines and use the snap hook part of the chain to hang yarn skeins.

Bindoff

To keep from having a pointed nub at the end of your cast off stitches (especially when making scarves), don’t work the last stitch at all. Just slip the last stitch and then finish by pulling the yarn through that stitch and weaving it to hide the tail.

Bulky Wool Yarn Joining

If you need to join bulky wool yarn, use needle felting tools to marry the ends together so they felt together. You’ll save length, eliminate knots, and give the project a seamless look.

Felting and Shaping

After felting an item, if you need to shape it, steam it. Steam, stretch and shape and re-steam if needed. It’s the washing agitation and shock of cold water that actually felts and shrinks an item, not the steam.

Edge Stitches

When you have a project where you’d like an attractive chain stitch edging (like a scarf, dishcloth or the front edge of a sweater), slip the first stitch of every row to eliminate the edge bump.

If the first stitch is a knit, with yarn in front, insert your needle as if to purl and slip the stitch. Then move the yarn to the back (between the 1st and 2nd stitches) and continue knitting the next stitch. If the next stitch should be a purl, keep the yarn in front and continue purling like normal.

If the first stitch is a purl, insert your needle as if to knit with yarn in back and slip the stitch. Move the yarn to the front and continue to purl. This will create a chain edge.

HOWEVER, do not use this technique if the edges are to be sewn together such as in sweater pieces. In that case, you would want a sturdier edge and would knit or purl the edge stitches in pattern.

Blocking Circular Shaped Knitting Projects

To block a circular project, pin the center of the project to your blocking board, attach a cord (like dental floss or smooth cotton yarn) around the outside edge. Measure from the center to the outside edge while you pin the edge using the cord as your guide to make sure it ends up round and not oval shaped.

Binding Off

To keep bound off stitches from being too tight and pulling in your project (or not being able get a sweater over your head), use a needle 1 or 2 sizes bigger to bind off. The nature of bound off stitches is non-elastic so make sure you either knit very loosely or use a bigger needle.

Threading Beads Onto Yarn

Use a dental floss threader as a needle when stringing beads onto yarn. They look like a giant embroidery needle and are very flexible. Put your yarn in the loop as if you were threading the needle. Pick up the bead and slide it down over the loop which will collapse and you can pull the bead on to the yarn. This works especially well if you have a tight fit between the bead and the yarn.

Scarf Edge Stitches

To make a pretty scarf selvedge edging, the easiest is to slip the first stitch of every row purlwise which makes the edge look like a chain stitch. Another edge idea is to add 8 stitches to your cast-on. Then k1, yo, k2tog at the beginning of every row or k2tog, yo at the beginning of every row.

Casting on in the Middle of a Row

Most times when you have a pocket or buttonhole to insert in your project, the pattern will say to cast on a certain number of stitches while you are in the middle of the row. It’s easily done if you turn your work around (wrong side toward you) and use a knitted on or backward loop cast on method. Then turn your work so it’s front facing again and continue to knit.

Yarn Weights

If you have the perfect pattern but not quite the right yarn to get started, use this general guide:
If you double lace weight yarn, you’ll get close to sport weight;
Doubling fingering weight gives DK weight;
Doubling sport weight gives worsted weight;
Doubling worsted weight gives super bulky weight.
Or you could use the problem as an excuse to go yarn shopping!

Casting On Using Double Pointed Needles

When using double pointed needles, instead of dividing your stitches among 3 or 4 needles when you cast on, use just 2 needles. You can knit the first couple of rounds on 2 needles no matter how many stitches you have. Then divide your stitches onto 3 or 4 needles. This will make it easier to make sure you don’t have twisted stitches.

Buttons and Buttonholes

If you are knitting a cardigan and want to make sure the placement of the buttons are exactly opposite the buttonholes, knit both fronts at the same time and knit a reverse stitch or another marking stitch on the button band in the same row as you make your buttonholes on the buttonhole band. Sew your button over the marked stitch.

Stretchy Cast On Edge

For most knitters, it’s easier to make a stretchy bind off than cast on edge so if a tight cast on is a problem for you, try this. Use a provisional cast-on, then come back later, pick up those stitches and bind off.

Gauge Problems

Usually, if you can get the right number of stitches per inch but have too many rows per inch, your yarn is too thin. If you can get the right number of stitches per inch but have too few rows per inch, your yarn is too thick.

Bind Off In Ribbing

To make a smoother bind-off in ribbing, always have your yarn in the back of the stitches whenever you pull the finished stitch over to bind off. So after a purl stitch, move the yarn to the back before slipping the stitch off the right-hand needle