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HELPFUL DIY KNITTING HACKS TO SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY

There are sooo many different knitting tools and accessories, that make a knitter’s life easier and the process itself more delightful. Not only they are useful, but they are also beautiful – all those hand-made stitch markers, elegant knitting needles, exquisite yarn bowls… The list can go on and on!

Unfortunately, we don’t always have them at close hand – things get lost, break, or are just not suited for our budget. That’s when creativity, DIY, and hacks can help out.

Below I have listed 6 knitting tips and tricks, that I personally use and find very useful.

Enjoy!

You might also be interested in:

• How to start knitting?
• What is a gauge swatch and why it is important

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#1 Stitch markers

Stitch markers are very handy, especially if you are working in the round or in a complicated stitch pattern, they save you the trouble of constantly checking your stitches.

Whether you don’t want to spend any extra money on the markers or you have run out of them (they tend to disappear one by one, just like hairpins) you can replace them with your DIY yarn markers, that are super easy to make.

Just take some leftover yarn, cut 10-15cm | 4-6 inches (this really depends on how long you want your markers to be), fold the yarn in half and make a loop to hang on your needle. Ta-da, you have just made a stitch marker! You can make as many markers as you need at any time of the day or night. They are free (except the cost of the leftover yarn, but I’m personally glad, I can make at least some use of it). Besides, if you take a different yarn color, you can make a color-coding system with your markers.

You can also replace stitch markers with paper clips, but be careful with them – they can catch the yarn.

#2 Needle caps

Needle caps are there to protect the stitches from slipping off the needles when you aren’t knitting. They are also a safety net when you are casting on stitches on the circular needles or double-pointed needles. I must say, I  have never owned them… If you have rubber bands in the house you can get by.

So the idea here is very simple – take one rubber band and wrap it around your needle. It will secure the stitches and keep them in place. It’s better to take the small elastics, the big ones make to many unnecessary loops on the needle.

#3 Yarn bowl

Yarn bowl keeps your yarn in place, so it doesn’t roll around and occasionally get onto the floor, under the table, etc… You get the idea. Furthermore, your yarn stays clean and untangled, and the whole knitting process is more smooth and comfortable as well. These bowls are beautiful and often have original designs but they are pricy, so before you invest in it, you can make something similar. Not as good looking, but if you aren’t sure you need one, first, try the DIY version to make up your mind. All you need is a bowl, that you aren’t using and a binder clip. Yarn goes into the bowl and the clip guides the thread. You can downgrade and ditch the clip if you don’t have one.

#4 Too long or too short tail

Estimating how much yarn you need for your cast on can be tricky, particularly if you have a lot of stitches to cast on. The tail tends to be either to short and there is not enough yarn or too long and you have to cut it off and let the yarn go to waste. Usually, you unravel and start again. And again… There is a good way to measure how much yarn you’ll need before you start your cast on. Take the tail of your yarn and wrap it around your needle 10 times – that’s how much yarn you will need for 10 stitches. So one wrap is about one stitch. If you need 20 stitches – wrap the yarn around the needle 20 times. If you need to cast on a significant amount of stitches, then it is better to measure how much yarn you need for say 10 stitches (or 20, 30…), secure that place with your fingers, unravel and double the length – that’s where you should start casting for 20 stitches, triple the length – that’s for 30 stitches, etc. Add about an extra 10 cm (4 inches) for the tail and start casting!

#5 Determining needle size

Unfortunately, not all needles are marked with their size. That’s when the gauge ruler comes to the rescue – you take your mystery needle and try to find the matching hole with the corresponding number (this really reminds me of those “match the shape” toys for toddlers). If you don’t have the ruler at hand you can try this trick. Take a little piece of paper, an ordinary ruler and your needle. Carefully poke a hole through the paper (please, don’t poke your finger) and measure the hole’s diameter. The number you get is the size of the needle in millimeters! If you are used to US/ UK/ Canadian sizes, you can use a metric conversion chart to determine the size. You can use this one found at the Craft Yarn Council’s homepage.

#6 Loose cast on

If you are a tight knitter or you need a loose cast on so the ribbing is more elastic, then you can cast on over two needles. That way your edge will be stretchier and it will still look neat. If you’ll just cast on very loosely over one needle, then it can look messy, because the space between the stitches is likely to be uneven since you don’t tighten them. Just do the usual cast on and when you’re done take out the second needle. I use this hack when I cast on for socks or a hat so the edge is accurate and the first row of the ribbing isn’t too tight.

I hope these tips were helpful and will make your knitting life a little easier!