Handy Tape Measure

When you make a copy of the pattern, copy a tape measure in the margin to measure against.
--or--
On your knitting needles mark off inches and with a permanent marker and mark the needles so that they can be used to measure your work in progress instead of having to take a measuring tape along!

Substitute Yarn - Wraps Per Inch

If you are looking for a substitute yarn at the yarn shop (perhaps a less expensive or more durable yarn) for your project, bring a short double point needle and ruler to compare the wraps per inch between the suggested yarn and the one that you want to substitute. Just wrap the yarn around the double point with the coils touching, then measure how many fall within the inch. It will give you a good idea whether the two would knit to the same gauge. Here’s a handy chart for various yarn weights:

Double Pointed Needles

When knitting with double point needles in the round – the more needles you use the less obvious your ladders (stitch that bridges the work between needles) will be. If you are a beginner however it’s often easier to use three plus one working needle because the three in the work form a triangle.

Items in Notions Kit

Keep a length (about 3-5 yards) of smooth lighter weight cotton yarn in your notions kit so you can always do a provisional cast on when you need it. It can also come in handy when jacket buttons pop off and need a quick fix.

Mobile Knitting Charts

If you are taking your knitting mobile and are using a chart, take a photo of the chart with your mobile phone. Then you can look at it whenever you need the chart without having lots of paper tagging along.

Fiber Test

An easy test to figure out if your yarn is animal, plant or synthetic, pour a small amount of bleach in a small bowl or custard cup. Place a length of your yarn into the bleach. It will either:

· bubble and dissolve which means it is an animal fiber and will felt
· the color starts to bleach out but the fiber does not dissolve, it’s a plant fiber like cotton
· the yarn floats in the bleach and doesn’t change, it is an acrylic yarn
· the yarn bubbles but doesn’t disappear, it is probably a wool-acrylic blend

Row Gauge

If you’ve made your swatch and have the right stitch gauge but have trouble obtaining the right row gauge, it could be because of your knitting style. Continental (picking style) knitting produces a slightly shorter stitch than English (throwing style) so it would be good to know both styles of knitting depending on your project.

Cables While Knitting in the Round

If you are knitting a cabled pattern in the round, it’s sometimes difficult to see/know when you are on a cable round as opposed to when you are knitting back and forth. There are a few tricks to being able to count the rounds which I’ve illustrated below.



This is my preferred method and what I think is the easy method.

Smooth Circular Joins

One way to make a smooth join when knitting in the round is to cast on 1 extra stitch. When joining the circle, knit the first and last stitches together.

Reading and Knitting Difficult Patterns

If you have a difficult pattern and lose your place when going from pattern or chart to your knitting, record the pattern steps on audio so you can listen and knit rather than finding your spot on a written pattern.

Counting Rows

It’s sometimes hard to count the number of rows in stockinette, especially if you are using a little bit of a fuzzy yarn. Instead, count rows from the back/purl side and stretch it out a bit so you can easily see the rows.

Chart Reading

If you are moving up to the challenge and knitting a complicated lace or fair isle pattern, mark your chart with colored vertical lines between the obvious patterns. Then use corresponding colored embroidery floss or colored markers (or even colored paper clips) in your knitting so you can see at a glance where you are in the pattern.

Picking Up Tinked Stitches

If you need to “tink” or rip back your knitting in stockinette stitch, make sure the right leg of each stitch is toward the front side of your needle when you pick up those stitches.

Increase in Ribbing

When making increases in ribbing (like from the bottom band to the body of a sweater), use a kfb or bar increase and do the increase in a knit stitch which is immediately followed by a purl stitch. This will make the increase nearly invisible. Then make your first stockinette row a purl row and that will really hide the increases.

Trimming Fringe

To straighten fringe before trimming, comb it out using a wide tooth hair pick type of comb.

Finding Yarn Ends

To easily find the tail end of your yarn skein once you’ve started using the yarn, use a bobby pin. Clip the end of the yarn with the bobby pin and push it into the skein. Totally secure and easy to find.

Uneven Stockinette Stitches

Use one size smaller needle on the purl side of stockinette stitches to make knitting more even overall and be more like machine knitting. Purl stitches take just a smidge more yarn and 1 needle size smaller will compensate for the difference. If you aren't sure if you have uneven stockinette stitches, turn your work over and stretch it vertically a bit. If you have "channels" showing every 2 rows, you need to use this tip.

Cast-On at End of Row

If you are instructed to cast on at the end of a row in the middle of your knitting, there are several ways to do it. You could use a knitted cast-on or you could insert a crochet hook in the edge stitch in the 2nd row below the last stitch that is on your needle. Make a loose chain the number of stitches required to cast on. Remove hook and insert free needle into the last loop to make 1 stitch. Pick up a stitch in each loop (back where you started the cast-on) and then continue to knit across.

Placing Holding Stitches on Ribbon

If you want to try on a garment, place the stitches on a piece of satin ribbon and tie the ends together. So if you are trying on a top down sweater, put the body stitches on the ribbon leaving plenty of length, tie the ends of the ribbon together and try on the sweater. To make it extra easy, put those stitches back on a needle a few sizes smaller remembering to knit onto the right sized needle when you start knitting again.

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.