Knitting requires some notions (but not many)

Knitting tools are usually referred to as knitting notions. You don't have to aquire many notions to begin knitting, you only need some needles of some sort and some yarn. However, after a while you'll find that there is a large variety of knitting notions out there.

I've assembled some pictures, explaining what sort of notions are out there. There are probably more notions than I've managed to assemble, but you will reach far equipped with the ones pictured here.

First, you need knitting needles. The picture above displays double-pointed needles in wood (2) and plastic (5). These usually come in fives, and are often used for knitting small circular knits, such as socks and sleeves. They come in a large variety of sizes, ranging from the smallest size 2mm/U.S. 0 (actually, I've seen 1.5 mm as well) to the largest sizes, like 12mm/U.S.17. I've seen as large as 20 mm as well.

Number (4) displays needle protectors, which are put on the tip of the double-pointed knitting needle, preventing stitches slipping of the needle. Number (3) displays crochet hooks, used when crocheting. Number (1) displays cable knitting needles, typically used in aran knits.

The picture above displays various circular knitting needles and some useful bits and bobbins. Number (2) is a regular circular needle (fixed), made of wood. Number (3) and (4) are parts of an interchangeable circular knitting needle, allowing you to replace parts and building the circular needle as you see fit (longer or shorter cable, thinner or thicker needles). Number (6) is an assembled interchangeable circular knitting needle. I've often found interchangeable circular knitting needles a bit cumbersome, they tend to loosen while I knit. In other words, I prefer fixed circular needles.

Number (1) is a knitting doll, used to knit cords. Number (5) is a view measurer, used to measure the size of knitting needles. This particular measurer also has a ruler with a view window, making it easy to check the gauge of your knitting. Number (7) are markers, used to mark specific locations in your knitting. Number (8) are row counters. You put them on your needle, next to your stitches, and each time you pass the row counter, you twist it once, and it will keep track on the number of rows you've knitted.

Number (1) in the picture above are yarn needles, with a big eye. This makes it easer to use them with thick yarns. Number (2) is a regular scissor, used to cut yarn (although you won't need this too often, I hope). Number (3) are pom-pom makers, which are used to make pom-poms (but you can also make pom-poms without an industrial pom-pom maker).

Number (4) are straight knitting needles, which are no favourites of mine, as they hurt my shoulders because they are too long. If you need room for a lot of stitches, I recommend circular needles rather than straight needles.

Number (1) is a tape measure, very useful when knitting garments such as sweaters etc. Number (2) is a regular safety needle, which can be used to hold a couple of stitches. Number (3) is a larger, blunt safety needle, designed specifically for holding stitches. Number (4) is a stitch holder that allows you to access the stitches from both sides, which can be useful at times. Number (3) won't allow this.

Enjoy your knitting!

How to manage a wild-grown yarn stash.

As a long-term knitter, I have accumulated a lot of yarn over the years. It seems to accumulate faster than I'm able to use it, which probably has something to do with my love of different textures, colours and blends. So how do I keep this yarn stash from growing beyond all boundaries, occupying my closet and popping out from under my bed?


Appearently, this is not a problem unheard of, several blog entries and even books have been written on the subject. So, in order to motivate myself to continue knitting and continue blogging, I've created my own knit-o-meter! This knit-o-meter shows the number of grams of yarn remainig in my yarn stash, as well as how many grams of yarn I've already used.

In addition, I've created some more detailed knit-o-meters, showing what types of yarn I use most frequently. All knit-o-meters are displayed on the knit-o-meter page.

Here's how I created my knit-o-meters
I created a new spreadsheet in Google docs, and made a table summarising the types of yarn and how many grams the yarn stash contains of each. Then I inserted a column chart in the spread sheet, based on this table. When the chart is finished, one of the available options is "Publish chart". Choosing this option provides you with a small html script, which you can copy and paste into a html gadget in your blog. This will display your chart as a picture in your blog. Whenever you update your table in the spreadsheet and save it, the chart will be automatically updated, as well as the picture of the chart in your blog!