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Fi Fi Meets The Klips

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This weekend I had the chance to use and abuse 2 pretty cool products.

First, the Fi Fi Bag. Here’s what the site says:

Carry Fi Fi one day and you will be hooked for life. Fill it with your knitting and tools, throw it in you bigger bag, and you´re ready for everything. Not knitting today? Simply leave your clutch at home. No muss, no fuss: beats a Ziploc any day! Fi Fi is an essential addition to every knitter´s tool stash.

Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsLeather-alternative vinyl exterior: easy to clean, waterproof, and durable
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsOlive green nylon interior: wipe-clean, bright, easy on your eyes
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsFlap closure: keeps your knitting safe, dry, and portable
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsLots of pockets: 12 interior pockets keep you organized on the go
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsElastic loop: thread in your circular needles for easy access
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsHandy hook: snap over your working yarn for tangle-free knitting, or clip in your scissors or stitch counter
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsEasily fits double pointed or circular needles
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsFits your current knitting magazines
Persnickity Knits Knitting BallsPerfect for Travel
Dimensions: 12¨ X 5.5¨ X 4¨

Here’s what Terrye says: WOW! I just love this bag, it’s soft, and elegant and just the perfect size for, well, all of the above. It easily carried all of my yarn, plus “finished pieces of project” plus accessories and pattern with no effort, I love how you can just take it with out, or take it out of your everyday bag.

And, you know what else I put in it?   KnitKlips! To finish my Sunrise Circle Jacket of course.

At first glance, and when first starting to use these I wondered why, when dollar store hair clips were available, would I buy these, but then the magic happened.

There’s only one spike, rather than several teeth meshing together. They’re big enough to be easy to use and they hold fast even when trying on your garments. They don’t snag on your knitting.

I was sold about 30 seconds after using these. Definitely worth the cost it almost makes finishing your projects as much fun as knitting them!

So, now that Sunrise Circle is completed, well except for the very cool buttons I got at the Fiber Festival, I’m not liking it. Actually, laying on the counter, it’s gorgeous, if I do say do myself, however when I put it on… not so much. Guess I don’t look as much like the model as I would like to believe!

Maybe one of my willowy daughters will get an early birthday present….

Comments

  1. I have the FiFi, and I love it. I live in Bellingham, WA, where the bags are made. They have a little storefront where they sell items made by local crafters–including some local yarn. I saw the FiFi in the window and thought it was a nifty little purse. I was even happier when I saw it was a nifty little knitting bag–and I had been looking for one. They have one that is a size smaller (good for those who knit socks or scarves) and one that is larger. Right now I am making a baby blanket, and it easily fits in the FiFi.

Have you read?

Book Review: Patty Lyons’ Knitting ER

Patty Lyons is known for teaching knitters the how and the why of knitting skills. Her Knitting Bag of Tricks helped knitters learn how stitches work, why we do things the way we do and what might be better alternatives. 

Patty Lyons’ Knitting ER aims to do the same with a particular focus on fixing mistakes in your knitting both before and after you bind off. She has deliberately made mistakes (and tons of accidental ones as well) to teach herself the best methods for fixing everything from a misplaced increase and a dropped edge stitch to faulty cable turns, messed up lace and brioche knitting disasters, to name a few. 

The book starts with a foundation of understanding how stitches work, how to read them, and the basic methods we use for fixing mistakes in knitting: frogging (ripping out several rows at a time), tinking (removing stitches across a row one stitch at a time) and dropping a stitch or several stitches on purpose to fix a mistake and ladder it back up. 

It talks about the most basic mistakes like accidental yarn overs and slipped stitches and how to fix them, as well as tips for using lifelines or slipping a smaller needle into your project to hold the stitches before you rip. 

Then we move on to more complicated fixes like picking up a dropped edge stitch, fixing a dropped cast on stitch, removing the twist from a circular knitting project (which you can only do after the first round is knit; this is an ER not a miracle station), fixing ladders in a project, tinking when you’re worked increases or decreases (or what to do when you forgot to add them) and fixing dropped stitches at the edges or short rows.

After that is the specialist’s office, which covers fix-it techniques you might not ever need, or only rarely, but it’s nice to have a place you can find the solution if you ever do need it. We’re talking fixing mistakes in a lace pattern, dealing with miscrossed cables (and counting rows in the cable so you when when it’s the right time to work it again), colorwork issues and brioche blunders. Some of these diagrams are sure to give you pause if you’ve never done something like dropping down a single cable for 20 rows and reknitting it, but again, it’s nice to know you can do those things if you need to. 

Even if your project is done it’s not too late for the doctor to do some good. You’ll also learn how to use duplicate stitch to make knit and purl stitches on the surface of a knitting project, which allows you to do things like fake a decrease you forgot, add a purl you missed in a textured stitch pattern, even fix mistakes in lace, stranded knitting, brioche and cables. 

There’s also tips for dealing with too tight cast ons and bind offs and floppy necklines, pieces knit too long or too short and very detailed instructions for grafting in probably any situation you might encounter, as well as approaches to major surgery.

A lot in these later chapters is kind of mind blowing, and if you’re not getting it from drawings, there are QR codes to videos that cover a lot of the problems and allow you to see the fixes in another way. And there are cute illustrations on the theme of knitting ER from Franklin Habit, too!

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to fix mistakes, minor or major, without having to rip out all of your knitting, this is the book you’ll want to have on your shelf for ready reference and reassurance throughout your knitting career. 

About the book: 208 pages, paperback, published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.