Barbara
All you need for knitting is wool and knitting needles. Okay, maybe another pair of scissors and a needle. Otherwise you can start immediately. But maybe it would be a good idea to have some accessories to make your work a little easier. All you have to do is look around your household. There are a lot of things here to help you knit. Take a look at these 10 knitting tricks, maybe you can try one or the other.
Trick 1: No counting when picking up stitches
You probably know that too: you want to pick up 100 stitches for the next cardigan. You count every new scam. The son comes in and wants to know something or the phone rings, you’ve already miscounted. So you start all over again. To help me, I simply cut off several woolen threads from a 10 cm long piece of yarn and knotted the ends together. After 10 or 20 stitches, I thread one of the woollen thread markers onto the needle. Now I don’t need to count from the beginning of an interruption, but from the last marker. The markers are removed in the next row.
Trick 2: Saving the rest of the thread
“Long thread, lazy girl!” that’s what my grandma used to say. However, this was about a sewing thread. I like to be a lazy girl when picking up stitches, because it is better to have a thread that is too long than if the thread is not enough. Often the remaining thread can also be used for sewing together. That’s why I wrap the rest of my thread over two fingers and fix it over the middle of the ministrand. So that my working thread doesn’t get stuck with the small strand and in the worst case even dissolve again, I pin it to my project after a few rows with a safety pin.
Trick 3: Counting rows with the counting aid
If you need to count rows in your tutorial, a row counter is quite handy. If you don’t have one at hand, you can easily help yourself with a card and three paper clips. Write numbers from 1 to 10 on one side, numbers in increments of 10 to 90 on the other side and numbers in increments of 100 on the third side.
I have recorded a pattern in the photo. When I start, I push the green paper clip at the one-steps one row further when the row is finished. When I reach the 11th row, I push the green paperclip back to 1 and the yellow paperclip from zero to 10. 101 rows after I have finished working, I push the white paperclip back to 100, the yellow to 0 and the green to 1.
Trick 4: Mark a row in the chart
With a Post-it / sticky note I can easily mark the current row in the knitted font. When I have finished the row, I stick the piece of paper one row further. If my knitted writing is much wider, then I simply glue two or three pieces of paper together.
Trick 5: Practical yarn unwinding
To ensure that the wool unwinds well from the ball, the ball can be placed on a spindle, the packaging of CD/DVD blanks. Here, the beginning of the yarn, which is on the outside of the ball, is used as the working thread. The cover can also be put on. To do this, a hole must first be drilled in the cover and the thread pulled outwards from the inside.
That’s a practical ball of wool holder.
Trick 6: The ball of wool cannot dissolve.
Last time I bought a superwash treated merino yarn to knit a scarf that should not scratch under any circumstances. The yarn was really soft. However, due to the special treatment, the fibres were also very smooth. During knitting, the outer yarn windings of the ball came loose.
Since I also worked with several colors, I had to take breaks from time to time to untangle the threads. That was annoying until I had the idea to pack the balls into cups. In this case I had to use the working thread from the inside of the ball.
I like such knitting tricks and I have also used them for a new project in which I use cotton and viscose yarn. This time in plastic cups that don’t break that easily.
Trick 7: Hand-wound ball of wool does not roll through the whole room
If wool is bought in a strand, the wool must be wrapped into a ball. When knitting, such hand-wound balls should be tamed, otherwise they roll through the whole room. A kitchen sieve has proven to be a practical solution. Simply place the ball in the sieve and pull the thread through a hole.
Trick 8: Wool protection on the move
If, like me, you like knitting on the road, you certainly don’t want the balls of wool to accidentally roll onto the floor of the tram or café. A practical solution are bags with a zip closure. Each ball of yarn comes in such a bag and if one really falls to the ground: the yarn stays clean – the bag can be washed or replaced.
Tricks 9: This prevents the stitches from slipping off the needles
If you knit socks or a hat with the needles, then you should secure your needles when you put the knitting away, otherwise a stitch will easily slip off a needle.
The problem is if you don’t realize it. But with two rubber bands at the ends of the needles, it won’t happen.
Trick 10: This prevents stitches from slipping off circular knitting needles
With circular needles, you can also use a small tool to prevent the stitches from coming loose. Simply use a locking clip for a different purpose.
Here the cable is clamped behind the needle tips. Make sure that you run the cable directly at the joint between the upper and lower part so that the cable is not damaged.
I hope these ingenious knitting hacks were helpful for you and you will try out one or two of them in your knitting work.
