Knitting

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Using Household Items for Knitting

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use a dpn to fold and hold a knitting projectWhether you’re traveling this summer or just want to do a bit of knitting on the go without dragging your whole knitting tool arsenal with you, there are some great hacks you can do to use regular household items to aid your knitting.

Amy from Love Knitting has a great list of things you can use instead of other things. Some of these are classics, like using scrap yarn as a stitch marker or a wine bottle cork as a point protector.

But I don’t think I’d have thought to use dental floss as a stitch holder (I usually have some extra yarn around I can use for that purpose) or using a DPN to hold your folded scarf in place so it’s not warming up your lap when it’s hot outside. That’s pretty brilliant right there.

Her suggestions for common household measuring tools are great, too. It’s a good idea to measure things you always have with you like your hand (mine’s about 6.5 inches from wrist to end of the longest finger) that you can use in a pinch. Or always carry a business card (usually around 3.5 by 2 inches) or an index card (3×5) in your bag, which is handy for jotting notes as well as measuring.

Do you use any common household items in your knitting? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Love Knitting.]

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Comments

  2. When knitting cable stitches I have had to open up a paper clip and us it as a holder when my cable stitch holder went missing. I have also used large size baby diaper pins to hold a few stitches away from the others for part of a project.

Have you read?

Knit a Glasses Holder for Your Bedside Table

knit glasses holder

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]