Some Pointed Thoughts on Knitting Needles

 

Two days ago I bought the above "grab bags" of knitting needles from Value Village for a total after tax price of $11.28. It was difficult to see exactly what was in the bags while I was at the store, but I could definitely see several sizes of knitting needles that I knew I didn't own in there, and I felt confident I would at least get my money's worth, even if there was nothing more in the bags that I wanted. I bought the bags, brought them home, tore them open with the enthusiasm of a small child opening presents on Christmas morning, and spent a happy evening upgrading my knitting needle collection. 

First I went through the contents of the two bags looking for anything I didn't have. This search netted me a pair of 3.75 mm straights, a pair of 7 mm straights, a pair of 10 mm straights, a set of four 7 mm DPNS, a 7 mm 30" circular, a pair of rubber needle tip guards, and 2 crochet hooks in sizes 2.5 mm and 9 mm. I also found a set of three wool tapestry needles in assorted sizes. I probably already had at least one needle in each of those sizes, but it never hurts to have a few more of those on hand as they tend to break/get lost, so I put them in the plastic needle case in my work basket. At this point I felt justified in my decision to buy the grab bags. Buying all of these items new would have cost quite a bit more than $11.28. 

I was about to bundle up the rest of the needles and put them in the thrift shop donation bag in the hall closet when I remembered that I had some knitting needles that were missing their end knobs, and what a pain it was to have my stitches falling off them mid-project. Perhaps I could replace those pairs with some same size sets from the grab bags.

I fetched my collection of straight knitting needles from the glass vase in the attic, laid them out in order of size on top of my dresser... and started laughing. Seeing all my straight knitting needle collection as a whole made me realize how very dilapidated they were in a way I'd never quite registered before. I did indeed have several needles with their end knobs missing, and there were others that had the size numbers worn off their knobs. I had one pair of 5 mms that was mismatched, with two different style knobs. Quite a few needles were slightly bent. And I'd never even really noticed, because I was too busy knitting.

I began comparing what I had in my existing set to the needles from the grab bags to see what I could upgrade, and in the end, besides the new tools I added to my collection, I must have replaced seven or eight pairs of straights. I replaced all the needles with missing knobs or that had their numbers worn off them, and the mismatched pair. I replaced one pair of plastic needles with a metal pair in the same size. I also replaced a few pairs of knitting needles that were fine but that were of a different make than the rest of my set with others that were Aeros, so that I would have a more matched set (most of my straights are classic gray metal or plastic Aeros with millimeter sizes marked on the end knobs). Most of the bent needles also got replaced along the way.

By the time I was done, I was extra pleased with my purchase. I bought those grab bags with the idea that I'd been adding new sizes to my needle collection, and while I wouldn't have thought it worthwhile to spend money to upgrade my existing needles, it was such a nice bonus to be able to do that too. My set of straights looked much better for it.

Once I was done all with all my sorting and assessing, I updated my knitting needle catalogue to reflect my new acquisitions. Yes, I have an Excel spreadsheet in which I keep track of what knitting needles I have, as well as a second spreadsheet for my sewing thread catalogue. I know that sounds obsessive, but it is such a convenience to be able to see at a glance whether I have the right size straights, DPNs, or circs for a project instead of having to manually go through all my needles in order to find that out. 

I also thought about my needle collection as a whole. What else did I need/want for it? As you can tell from my screencap of my catalogue, I am some needles short of having a truly complete set, mostly with regards to the very small sizes. I'll probably add the missing sizes over time -- or immediately if I should happen to pick a pattern that requires needles I don't have. I have some crappy quality aluminum DPNs I would like to replace, but will probably wait until I have a chance to get a good deal on the new ones. I would definitely like to make a fabric roll-up case for my DPNs, with a specifically labelled pocket for each size, as at present I keep my DPNs bundled together with an elastic, and it's such a pain to have to sift through them with a needle gauge in order to find the size I want. 

While I was updating my knitting needle catalogue, I added a crochet hook section. I crochet very little, and don't have that many hooks, but now that I had eight different sizes on hand instead of only six, it seemed worth it to document what I have for future ease of reference. 

I definitely don't need to upgrade my circulars. Last December when I was faced with the prospect of spending Christmas alone thanks to the pandemic, was shopping on Amazon to cheer myself up, and found that the ChiaoGoo lace set I'd had in my wish list for several years was listed for the lowest price I had ever seen it at... well, those were perfect storm shopping conditions if I ever experienced any. I blew my budget by buying myself a set of ChiaoGoos. Nine months later it still seems too good to be true that I should be so fortunate to have such a fantastic set of tools, and I've used them even more than I expected to.  

This was my old set of circulars, so you can understand why I was so thrilled to get the ChiaoGoo set. The assorted circulars were all very well, but the interchangeable circ kit was a thrift shop Denise set I got years before for $5, and it was such a piece of shit. I had to keep reminding myself that it was better than nothing, because it barely was. The set was partially incomplete and partially broken when I got it, the yarn used to constantly catch on the joins, and the cords and needles weren't at all reliable about staying connected. They used to come apart mid-round and 50 or more of my stitches would slide off the cord. I'd grit my teeth, painstakingly pick up the dropped stitches, and carry on, only to have the same thing happen again five minutes later. I can feel my blood pressure going up just from thinking about it.

I kept two of the old circular needles as they were sizes not included in my ChiaoGoo set, and the rest of my old circs went to a thrift shop, but I was NOT subjecting some other poor knitter to that Satanic torture device disguised as a circular knitting needle set. The Denise set went in the garbage, and I may have murmured a few words in Latin over its treacherously innocuous-looking blue-flowered vinyl case before I put in the bag so that it wouldn't turn up again unexpectedly somewhere in my house, as in those old urban legends about burned Ouija boards or cursed dolls. 

I'm reminded of a few anecdotes I know about people who think they have to have shiny new tools for whatever activity they're taking up. My father is an award-winning woodworker who has lots of woodworking friends, and he told me a story about a lawyer one of his friends knew who had a woodworking shop in his house that was fully stocked with tens of thousands of dollars' worth of top-of-the-line woodworking tools and equipment, all in pristine condition... as a working woodworking shop never is. That lawyer had never used his woodworking tools, hadn't the first idea of how to use them, and wasn't making any effort to learn. They were only there so he could enjoy showing his fantastic woodworking shop to anyone who visited his house. The great irony of this, of course, is that while he wanted to pose as a woodworker with tools he just looked like... a tool. 

Or there's the time in the late nineties a friend of mine, who had just started to play tennis, bought two new good quality tennis rackets for fifty or sixty dollars each, and after we played a game in which she could barely get the ball across the net (not that I could either), told me she wanted to trade her new rackets in for some special high-end tennis rackets that cost $100+ each.

Then there's another story that my aunt, who is a retired Sears sewing machine sales associate, has told about the time a mother and a daughter came into the store to get a sewing machine for the daughter, who was taking courses in fashion design. They bought a lower end machine, and then came back a few weeks later to return it. The daughter hadn't used it, but she was sure she would use a better machine, so the mother bought her a much more expensive machine with more features. A few weeks later they returned the second machine too, because guess what, the daughter hadn't used the higher end sewing machine either.

The over valuing, and over purchasing, of new, top-of-the-line equipment is the mark of a dilettante, while experts and professionals are generally satisfied to have the tools that they need, and will often improvise with what they have rather than go to the expense of buying very specialized tools they will seldom use. No matter how shiny and new tools are or how exciting it is to buy them, they won't do the work for you, nor are they any substitute for taste, skill, experience, or genuine commitment and interest. When it comes to knitting needles, all that really matters is that they're the right size for your gauge, the right type for whatever project you're making, and not total shit as to quality and/or condition. Nice as it was to upgrade my straight knitting needle collection, and as much as I love my ChiaoGoo set, my improved knitting needle collection won't make me a better knitter or turn out better work than my old ones did; they just look nicer, are a little easier, more pleasurable, and more convenient to use, and offer me some more gauge options. I want to replace my cheap coloured aluminum DPNs with better quality sets because I know they'll eventually break or get bent, but for the time being I can do just as good work with them as I could with the best DPNs on the market. 

Unlike that lawyer with his stage set woodworking shop, my father's woodworking shop isn't a sight to impress anyone. He has a motley collection of tools, many of which are decades old and look it, and the dirtiness and disorder of his workshop is such that it has long posed something of an ongoing threat to his and my mother's marital status. But while he does replace broken tools as needed and occasionally treats himself to some new ones, generally he has what he needs to do the work he wants to do, and he turns out woodwork that's beautiful and original and far more of a real accomplishment than any immaculate display of expensive new tools could ever be. 

Tools are nice, but the actual work that you do -- what you learn, what results you can produce -- ultimately matters so much more.   

Making My Mark

Back in 2013 I wrote a post about selected stitch markers, and I remember how looking at all those cute options felt like stitch marker porn. At that time I was using a set of commercially made plastic stitch markers myself. I never liked those stitch markers because I considered them very ugly, but I disliked their brittleness even more. They were shaped like tiny locks, but they broke so easily that I avoided locking and unlocking them, and I'd often find one had snapped from nothing more than the light pressure of my hand as it held the the needle the marker was on. I never lost any stitch markers, but one by one they cracked and split until I was down to the last eight or nine out of what had initially been two dozen or so. Then it was time to think about picking out some new ones -- and I can't say I was sorry to have the excuse to replace the old set. Finally I was going to get some pretty stitch markers!

When I revisited that old KNDD post for ideas on what stitch markers to buy, I was reminded by my own research that I could make my own stitch markers. I do some beading and had the tools and findings already, and it was just a matter of finding some suitable beads.

For this project, I looked for medium-sized, smooth beads that wouldn't snag or catch on whatever yarn I used. I tried to keep the cost to a minimum, and it is indeed quite possible to do this simple project for very little if you've got basic beading tools on hand. I also knew I wanted different colour stitch markers that I could colour code as I marked different things (i.e., a single distinct marker for the start of a row, or a matched set for the sleeve parts of a "top down" sweater project).

When I bought the beads for my grandniece's tenth birthday necklace and earring set in January, I got the string of orange Czech glass beads you see above as my "free string" in a "buy 1 string of beads, get one free" sale at Michaels. I found the two red beads and the two dyed jasper beads you see above in my box of beading supplies -- they were the only ones I had left of their kind. The remaining string of ivory beads in the photo was a necklace I bought for $2 at Value Village using a "$2 off" coupon I got from them for filling out an online survey. I was feeling quite pleased with myself for getting the beads for this project together at essentially no cost... until I actually tried making the stitch markers and it turned out that the holes in the ivory beads were too large for this project. Sigh. I bagged up those ivory beads and tucked them away in my beading box for some as yet unknown future use. Then I bought another thrift shop necklace for $2.25, and this time I checked the holes before I bought the necklace to be sure the beads were suitable.

To make your own stitch markers you need head pins, leverback earrings, and a few basic beading tools: cutters, round nose pliers, and flat pliers or crimpers (not shown). Put the bead on your head pin, add the lever-back earring, then twist the top of the pin around the needlenose pliers until it's in a small circle. Cut off the excess length of headpin with the cutters, clamp the circle you've created closed with the flat pliers or crimpers, and... you're done.

These are the finished stitch markers. Given that twenty is a plentiful supply of stitch markers for me (I seldom work on more than one knitting project at a time), they are unlikely to break, and I'm not one to lose things, they should last me for quite some time. If they look just like earrings to you, it's because they essentially are, though I would put a little more effort into earring design than I have into these stitch markers, which I wished to keep simple in order to give my yarn as little as possible to wind itself around.

I did hold back two of the orange Czech beads with the idea of possibly making them into earrings for me at some point... lest I be otherwise tempted to borrow two of my stitch markers for some special occasion involving an orange outfit.

Gauge This

One of the most useful tools a knitter has is the knitting needle gauge, which is a tool for measuring the size of a knitting needle. There are various styles of gauges available for sale, and in this post we're going to have a look at some of them.

The Knitter's Rule handcrafted bamboo gauge above is probably one of the cutest I've seen, but sadly for those of us who might want one, the Etsy seller who made the Knitter's Rule gauges has retired from Etsy.

This is the utilitarian and widely available Susan Bates needle gauge. It's the one I have, and though it may be unexciting aesthetically, it could hardly be bettered in terms of its utility. The built-in rulers and gauge measure are very handy, and besides providing both metric and U.S. knitting needle sizes, it also measures crochet hook sizes, and as it's made of metal it's extremely durable. My one quibble is that it doesn't have U.K. needle sizes on it, but then no gauge that I've seen has all three.





These owl and Dr. Who-themed gauges are made by the Etsy vendor Tangerine Designs, who also makes gauges in sheep and hedgehog shapes. They aren't quite as useful as the Susan Bates gauge because they only have either metric or U.S. needle sizes and have little measuring capacity, but they are undeniably adorable.

This laser cut plastic Swift needle gauge was made by Etsy vendor Hipstrings. There are a lot of handmade and vintage gauges for sale on Etsy, so it's worth a browse through their listings if you'd like a gauge that is styled like your spirit animal or favourite theme.

Malojos.com offers those of us who feel married to our knitting this sterling silver needle gauge ring, which measures knitting needle U.S. sizes from 0-8.

Of course, if knitting needle gauges are too old school for you, there is an app for that.

If any sort of needle gauge isn't in the budget right now, here's a free needle gauge chart from Twisted Angle. Just print it off their web site at 100% and you'll be in the needle gauging business.

Tying on Some Knitting

A few days ago when I was searching for shares for my Facebook page, I came across this image. It's from the 1964 Sears catalogue. Just think, if you'd been a knitter back in 1964, this snazzy apron could have been yours, in your choice of red or aqua, for a mere $1.98. A few years back when I was at Fabriclands and browsing through their pattern catalogues, I came across a pattern for a scrapbooking apron, about which I joked with a friend who, like me, does not get the whole scrapbooking thing. But I never knew knitting aprons existed. The googling I did to try and track down some info about this ad led to my discovery that knitting aprons are actually a thing.

This illustration of and directions for making a knitting apron come from the May 1860 issue of Peterson's Magazine, which seems to have been a publication similar to Godey's Lady's Book in that it included fashion illustrations or "fashion plates" which women could use to plan their wardrobes for the coming season. I can understand why a nineteenth century housekeeper, who would have worn an apron half the time anyway, would find this a useful item. Such an apron must have been a good way of keeping one's knitting handy for those spare moments while one waited for bread to bake or while the baby napped.

Here's a vintage knitting apron that was listed on Etsy and has been sold. I can't find out how old it is, but am guessing it dates from the mid-twentieth century, say somewhere between 1930 to 1960. It reminds me a lot of an apron my grandmother used to have, which had an clothesline, clothes, and basket of laundry and clothespins depicted on it in a similar style of embroidery. Naturally Grandma Swan wore it only for hanging the wash up on the clothesline in the back yard. What else could she have worn it for? And what else could this apron be for but for knitting? Having the yarn come out of the centre of the embroidered yarn ball is very witty if a little impractical. It always amuses me to come across vintage or historical references to the fact that knitters have been fending cats away from their yarn for probably as long as knitting as existed.

There are knitting aprons available for sale these days, though they are handmade rather than mass produced. The one above is made by Etsy vendor KoalaCaddie, and is convertible from apron to bag and back again. It's a pretty clever idea, and you have the option of special ordering it from KoalaCaddie in a variety of cute fabrics, or, if you sew, whipping one up for yourself.

I can't see myself wearing a knitting apron, as I never wear aprons and wouldn't care to begin in order wear my knitting around the house. I generally will only knit during phone calls and while watching TV in the evening, and I can just fetch my knitting for that, though we were still living in the era of corded phones, I might feel differently. For me, knitting aprons are like yarn bowls — an interesting curiosity, though not logistically compatible with how I personally knit. But perhaps they will work for you.

A Needling Question of Storage

How do you store your knitting needles? My last post about how to make one's own knitting needles got me thinking about options for storing them. You're looking at my method, a cut glass vase that I found at Value Village for $6 and that sits on a chest of drawers in my attic workroom. Vases and other containers with an elongated shape are probably the simplest and most cost-effective solution for knitting needle storage. People use all kinds of containers for their needles, and often employ whatever's already sitting around the house: old paint cans, mason jars, cookie tins, or Pringle or coffee cans. One attractive option is to use those tubular gift boxes designed to hold wine bottles.

If the vase option isn't organized enough for you (the one drawback of the vase method is that fishing for a certain size needles can take a few very frustrating minutes), there are a number of types of needle cases to consider. This is one of the higher-end options, a Namaste Double Wide Red Circular Knitting Needle Case. Namaste makes a range of storage cases that are designed specifically for knitting needles and knitting notions, and I must admit they are all pretty snazzy looking.

Another storage option is to use a binder to hold your knitting needles. This option is probably best for your circular needles and DPNs, because your straight needles may be too long to fit within the binder. You can assemble a knitting needle binder yourself and organize it in exactly the manner you wish fairly easily and inexpensively, because Staples will have a selection of binders and hole punched envelopes and cases. A zippered binder like this one would be ideal because it prevents your needles from ever falling out, but an ordinary 2" school binder will serve the purpose as well. If you wish you can dress up an old binder by making it a special fabric or knitted cover, to which a zipper, tie or snap closure can be added. The needle-containing envelopes inside the binder can be labelled and organized by size to make it easy for you to find the needle you want, and the binder itself can be stowed away on a bookshelf.





A fourth knitting needle option is to use a folding fabric storage case. These cases are widely available for sale (the one depicted above was made by Etsy vendor Lena Brown). If you have even basic sewing skills, you can try your hand at designing your own. Sometimes people use placemats for this kind of project rather than raw fabric as so much of the cutting, shaping, reinforcing, and edge finishing is already done. A case like this can be made exactly to your specifications and can potentially hold all your tools — not only all your needles but also your scissors, stitch markers, tape measure, needle gauge, etc. The case can also be made to tie, zip, or snap shut. Another option is to stitch a casing along the top of their fabric needle cases so that a dowel rod can be slipped through it, attach a cord or ribbon to the ends of the dowel rod, and hang the needle case on a wall or to the back of a door.

Have you found another storage option besides that of a vase, box, binder or handmade or purchased needle storage case? Tell us about it in the comments!

How to Make Wooden Knitting Needles

If you'd like knitting needles with character, you might try experimenting with making your own. Making wooden knitting needles is easy: you can buy wooden dowels at your local craft or building supply store (take your needle gauge with you if you want a particular size), cut them to whatever length you like, use a pencil sharpener to create the pointed ends, sandpaper the whole needle lightly, and condition the wood with wood or mineral oil. Once you've done all this, you've reached the fun part of making your own wooden needles: decorating them with end knobs in the style of your choice. For this you can use polymer clay (best known by its most common brand name, Sculpey), a crafting clay that is baked in a kitchen oven.

This tutorial explains the needle-making process in more detail.

Polymer clay can be molded in any style or shape you chose, and then hand painted. The Babushka doll knitting needles above were hand made by Etsy vendor Sail on Baby.

These knitting penguin needles are both meta and quite cute. They are from the Etsy shop of The Clay Bean Co.

If your tastes run to the macabre rather than the cute, try your hand at making skull or zombie knitting needles.

And there's no need to confine your decorating solely to the knob ends of the knitting needles. It's possible to paint the needles themselves. You'll need to add a few coats of varnish once the painting is done to keep the paint from rubbing off onto your work. These striped needles are the work of Etsy vendor Soup to Knits. I've also previously posted about how to dye wooden knitting needles.

If you try making your own needles, have fun with it, and feel free to link to pictures of the results in the comments.

Stitch Markers You'll Want to Snitch

Recently, after years of using improvised stitch markers, I decided to treat myself to some real ones while on a visit to Toronto's Romni Wools, and was disheartened by the limited selection and general unattractiveness of the stitch markers they had for sale. But I knew I'm not the only crafter who loves using beautiful and high quality tools. There had to be some awesome stitch markers out there, and even better, I could write a post about them. Well, as it happens, there are and I did and here's the resulting post.

If you've never used stitch markers, they are quite a simple and handy little knitting accessory to help you keep track of where you are in your knitting project by marking the beginning of a round or a lace pattern. One simply slips the stitch marker from the left needle to the right when one comes back to it. There are both closed loop and locking stitch markers. The latter are preferable because they have more uses in knitting and can also be used for crocheting. This Lion Brand blog post goes into some more detail about how to use stitch markers.

It's quite easy to make your own stitch markers with items you probably already have lying around your home. You can use earrings, paper clips, safety pins, bobby pins, twist ties, plastic drinking straws cut into small pieces and slipped onto the needle, or a contrasting strand of yarn or embroidery floss slip knotted over the needle. But if you'd like to indulge in some special stitch markers, I've picked out a selection of stitch markers from around the net that you can either buy or make for yourself with beading techniques. If you've never done any beading, Worm Spit has a primer on how to make beaded stitch markers.

The notation stitch markers above (which are the closed loop type of stitch marker) are available for sale at Stitch Culture.

Craftsy suggests you can make these yarn and bead markers with technical reminders on them. I don't think I could be bothered changing the beads as they propose doing, but it's workable idea if it suits you.

These number and pearl stitch markers from Seahorse Designs would be an easy way to keep track of your rounds.

If you don't want to use your yarn makers to keep track of technical requirements but still want them to reference your love of knitting, these yarn ball markers from Hiya Hiya North America are cute and colourful.

Make sure you don't lose these little sheep! From Caryll Designs.

These green bead markers from Yarn Tomato are ever so pretty. You could make something very similar yourself, and once you know how to make stitch markers, your ability to make them will be limited only by the kind of beads available to you.

Here are some pearl markers from Shade Tree Art. What else would one put with cashmere yarn but pearls?

How do you like these apples? From Creations Jacqueline.

Here are some adorable owl stitch markers from the Etsy shop Lavender Hill Knits. There are a number of lovely stitch markers in this shop, and for that matter the entire shop is well worth a look.

These are definitely the coolest stitch markers I came across while researching this post. From Etsy seller Lady Danio.

These disco stitch markers will add a little bling to your knitting projects. From Etsy seller rosyretro. There are a lot of stitch markers available on Etsy.

Get Shorty

Michael Sellick of The Crochet Crowd demonstrates how you can shorten long plastic knitting needles to whatever length you wish.

Knitting Needles From Somewhere Over the Rainbow

If you find wood- or metal-tone knitting needles too visually bland or boring, you could always make these rainbow-coloured knitting needles out of wooden dowel and some watercolour paints. It's easy and inexpensive and the resulting gift would make a good gift for a knitter. Make It Handmade has posted a tutorial that tells you how it's done.

Blocking Board Blueprint

Over the last year or so I've been making a concerted effort to improve my knitting skills. I learned to knit as a child and once I got to a certain skill level as a teenager, I just stayed there. I thought I was an expert knitter because I could easily make patterns designated as expert level, but I wasn't. My projects did turn out quite well, but there was room for improvement, especially in the finishing details. I only knew one way to cast on and one way to cast off, there were a lot of techniques I had never tried at all, I didn't know how to seam a garment properly, and I'd never blocked a sweater (I did press the seams). Besides improving in all these areas, I'd also like to acquire some design skills. I do freely alter patterns to suit my needs and tastes, and I have made sweaters without patterns, but it was all pretty basic stuff and I've never written a pattern. I'd like to learn to design more complex knitwear to a professional standard so some of the designs I have in my head can become a reality.

Towards all these ends, I recently decided I would get myself a blocking board and start blocking my work. An ironing board can be used for blocking, but it isn't big enough to work for anything but small projects. You can use a mattress, but who wants the bother of unmaking and remaking the bed before and after, to say nothing of having the bed out of commission for a few days at a time? You can use towels on a table, but those towels are going to shift about and make the task difficult, and again you won't be able to use the table for a day. A special purpose blocking board was what I wanted.

I priced blocking boards and found one of the size I wanted would cost something like $90(USD) plus shipping and probably duty, so I decided to make one for much less, and did. In case anyone would like a tutorial on how to make one for themselves, here's how I did it.

Items required for this project:

• a sheet of plywood in whatever size you like
• enough 1/2"–1" thick foam padding to cover the surface area of the plywood
• a piece of gingham fabric six inches longer and six inches wider than the plywood
• glue
• scissors
• a tape measure
• an upholstery stapler and staples
• a hammer, screwdriver and pair of grips to deal with the staples that won't cooperate
• a sewing machine and thread (optional)





I bought this 30" x 48" sheet of plywood from Home Depot for $12.42 (CDN). I would have preferred it to be about 30" x 60" but I would have had to buy a huge sheet of plywood and had it cut down, which meant it would be much more expensive with a lot of wastage, and so I settled for this size. It will do. I should be able to fit the pieces for a sweater for me on it, or do a dress or a coat if I want to, though I'll have to block those pieces separately.





Then I went to Fabricland and bought foam padding and a 1.25 metre length of green gingham. It would probably be better to get a sheet of foam for this project, but the day I was at Fabricland they had packages of four 1" chair seat foam squares on sale, while the sheet foam would have cost quite a bit more. It being spring, the gingham was also on sale. A gingham or checked fabric is the best thing for a homemade blocking board, because it gives you a grid to work on and does a lot of the measuring for you. Total cost of the foam and gingham was $16.22 (CDN).

I placed the foam squares on the board and cut two of them to fit, then I glued them down and left them to dry for a day or so.





I cut my gingham fabric to size, leaving a 3" margin all around. I also took an extra five minutes to overcast the edges of the fabric on my sewing machine to be sure there would be no fraying, but that's not necessary. As you can see here I've folded the edges under to make the back look neater, and that should prevent and/or hide any fraying.

I placed the fabric on the board as straight as I could, stapled the four corners from underneath, and then flipped the board over to staple the rest securely. Some of the staples were cantankerous things that wouldn't go in properly, so that's when I either pulled them out with vice grips and tried again with new staples, or hammered them the rest of the way in.





The finished board. You can see the lines where the foam squares meet — they weren't exactly precision cut to 1" — even though I tried mixing and matching them to get them to be level. But it won't affect the efficacy of the board, so whatever. The gingham isn't lined up to be perfectly straight either, but there's no need for architectural precision as we're not exactly designing a basilica here.

I'll be placing the board across the stair railing like this whenever I want to use it. It's the perfect place for it: it's at a good height to work on and it won't be in my way while the pieces dry.





The blocking board put to use for the first time. I invested in three packs of 40 rust-proof stainless steel pins for the purpose, but ran out when I blocked this child's sweater, so looks like I could use another two or three packs. When the board isn't in use, I store it on its edge behind the cupboard you see in the background.

The total cost of the board was $28.64(CDN), though I am not counting the cost of the glue, thread, staples and other equipment I already owned. The gingham and fabric should last a fairly long time, and when they do wear out can be replaced and the plywood reused. With an hour's work I saved myself close to $100, so I'm pleased.

This seemed rather too easy a project to really require a tutorial, but given that I'm running a knitting blog it seemed too on point not to share, so I wrote it up in the hope that it'll be of use and interest to some people.

Yarn Bowling

Since I began researching and writing for this blog, I've been seeing and reading about yarn bowls, those little slotted ceramic bowls that are designed to hold and dispense your yarn while you knit. Many of those for sale are handmade, and very lovely, desirable objects in their own right, but I doubt I'll ever be buying one for myself. Granted, I haven't tried using one, and perhaps they have attributes I'm not aware of (they're supposed to prevent the ball from tangling and rolling), but I can't see how they'd be practical for me. Most of my knitting is done on the TTC or in bed during my evenings in while I watch TV (I watch TV as an excuse to knit), and in either of those scenarios there's no available surface on which I could safely place a yarn bowl. Yes, my yarn balls do tend to roll onto the floor, but I'd rather pick up a ball of yarn and dust it off than weep bitter tears at the sight of a shattered handmade stoneware bowl... and then pick up the ball of yarn and dust it off. Then there's the fact that those round bowls will only hold a ball of yarn, not an elongated skein, and I don't bother winding new skeins of yarn into balls unless there's some reason it's absolutely necessary.

Ultimately, they're just too frivolous for me, the kind of thing my grandmother, who kept a house and a farm, raised her five children (and a lot of poultry), and knitted many an item during the Depression, all with the aid of a wood-burning stove, oil lamps, an outdoor water pump, and an outhouse, would have called "a pack of silliness". But then let it be said that Grandma Swan never thought it mattered how things looked as long as one was clean, neat, and mended, and was always one to patch the seat of her decades-old housedresses until the end of her days in 1993, so I try not to let her rock-bottom brand of practicality influence me too much. Need is too nebulous a construct to base one's purchasing decision on; I decide whether to buy things based on how much I'll use and enjoy them. So I would buy a yarn bowl if I really thought it would enhance the way I knit, but since it probably won't, I'll have to subvert my handmade stoneware lust into buying some tableware or something.

If you think you're the type of knitter a yarn bowl will work for, let me indulge in a little vicarious stoneware fun by showing you some pretty ones. The whimsical birdie stoneware bowl pictured above is from Uncommon Goods.





It may just be my love of turquoise talking, but this yarn bowl from Etsy vendor OCPottery is a feast for the eyes.





The Mud Place offers yarn bowls with pertinent text incorporated into the design — they also have "Purl" and "Knit" bowls.





If the words in the yarn bowls above are too generic for you, you can have a yarn bowl custom made and ask to have your name incorporated into the design, as Little Wren Pottery does for its customers.





As the owner of a white cat with a yarn fetish, I find this cat yarn bowl from Etsy vendor Heidi very funny if slightly disturbing.