A Few of My Favorite Things for Knitters

It’s that time of year when you might want to shop for something special for a knitter (or crocheter!) in your life, or when you might want to start dropping hints for someone who might want to buy something for you this holiday season.

Either way, I’ve got just the thing on my list of gift ideas for knitters and crocheters. The full list is over on my blog Our Daily Craft, but I wanted to share a few of the highlights here to get a conversation going about great gifts for knitters.

This year I really want to get some knitter’s barber cord. There are lots of knockoffs of this product out there, but as far as I can tell Handsome Fibers on Etsy was the first to sell it. It’s a flexible cord that you can slip over your needle points (up to size 9 US/5.5mm) so that you can slip on a top-down sweater or a sleeve without having to slip all the stitches onto a piece of yarn, then back onto the needle. I feel like this would save me a ton of time, and they’re just fun besides.

I love a good knitting toolkit that can hold a bunch of tools in one place for your travel knitting kit (or to keep near wherever you knit most often). I’ve got my eye on a Akerworks knitting and crochet kit, which includes a needle gauge, swatch gauge, tiny scissors, a tape measure, stitch markers and darning needles.

And this is one I already have, but I was recently reminded how much I love my set of Fix-A-Stitch double-ended crochet hooks. These short hooks are perfect for picking up dropped stitches, and because they have hooks on both ends you can move the tool around instead of having to flip the fabric when you’re fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch. It’s honestly the coolest thing and they’re great for fixing stitches in any other kind of fabric, too.

So, you tell me, what did I miss? Do you have a favorite knitting tool or accessory that you think every knitter should have? Tell me about it!

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry.

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want.

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape.

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use.

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing.

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own.

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry.

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]

Next Pattern:

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