#knitting hack

I've been knitting for at least 15 years, and over the past couple of years have been exploring more cast-ons and bind-offs if my project is more than just a basic stockinette or garter stitch. I only recently learned to space out my stitches with long-tail cast on to end up with more stretch and now I've finally seen a wonderful solution to "how to figure out how long of a tail to start with"!

I am gonna buy so many silicone beads and use my DPNs for EVERYTHING

It can be a pain to keep track of what row you're on. Here's how to make it easier.

Got a challenging pattern? And it’s charted? You need a hack! I’m working on a 67 stitch, 88 row charted pattern printed on one page. It’s been a challenge to remember what row I’m on, so I created a few hacks.  I thought you may like them too. Hack 1: Stick it! Place stickie notes under the row you’re on so what is most visible is the row you’re working. When you finish the row, simply re-stick…

I had a knitting project with me (of course). Socks (double of course). Unfortunately, the size 1 needles I had with me were much too small for knitting strips of fabric. I could have waited until the end of the our work day, found a yarn store, and bought some fat needles. But as soon as I had this unusual yarn in my hands, I wanted to know what it would look like knit up. So I dug some pens out of my purse and used them as needles.

Humble Bic pens doing the work of giants.

It worked much better than I imagined. I had to push the fabric on and off the pens with my fingers, applying more pressure than you would with regular needles. The pen tips were easy to slide into the stitches and I only got a little ink on my hand in the process.

Minimal pen marks. I was surprised.

While the pens weren’t ideal tools, they did work. I knit up all the yarn we had to make a narrow, multi-colored scarf.

The finished scarf

Cleo models the final product

The biggest down side: both pens gave their lives to make this scarf.

I knew I was killing them early on. I tried to make a note with one and it wouldn’t write. That’s when I saw the ink all globbed in the bottom and knew something was wrong.

As far as I can tell, repeatedly flexing the pens broke the inner tubes. Fortunately, the ink didn’t leak out of the pen proper.

I was pleased that my knitting hack worked as well as it did. In fact, I’m thinking I should try using pencils next.

Have you tried doing needlework with non-traditional tools? Did it work?

Best knitting hack ever (mostly because you have to drink all the wine first).