With so many young people taking up the knitting needles again, stores are beginning to offer more and more options for knitting accessories. If you are one of the many knitters that have taken up the craft in an attempt to save money and join the frugal DIY crowd, this can make it hard to choose the most important items for your knitting stash. With all of the options available, this chore can be as daunting as picking out a new cereal at the grocery store. If you want to increase your knitting supply stash without breaking the bank, it is important to know what exactly you will use if you have it, and what just sounds important but will find a permanent residence on your shelf after you bring it home. Here is an outline of the 8 most useful knitting accessories available, and what you might use them for.
Extra Needles and Accessories
If you’ve been knitting for any length of time, you probably have a good stash of knitting needles and circular needles to pick from. However, there are several different types of needles and accessories you may find useful when knitting. These include:
• Stitch markers, which are useful for counting stitches, increases, decreases, or rows. These are especially useful if you want to try your hand at knitting lace.
• Cable needles, which are short, curved needles that hold the suspended needles when cabling. This is the only time these will be useful.
• Darning needles, or tapestry needles. These are extremely useful and should be one of your first purchases. They are used for sewing two pieces together, adding stitched borders, and weaving in the ends of your work.
• Pom-Pom makers. You can make pom-poms without these, but having a pom-pom maker can really speed up the process and is a much cleaner alternative to trimming so many yarn ends. Pom-poms are very popular on knit goods, especially for kids.
Knitting Storage and Miscellaneous Accessories
Other than knitting accessories that are useful while working on a project, there are many other accessories that knitters find useful. For one thing, every knitter has to have storage of some kind if they don’t want their home to look like a yarn bomb exploded in there. Some popular accessories to buy for storage include:
• Needle and scissor cases, which keep all of your knitting needles, measuring tape, scissors, and other knitting accessories in one place so they don’t get lost. You can either purchase a case designed for this purpose or keep vases and jars full of needles and accessories near your workspace.
• Project bags, which are not essential unless you plan to travel with your knitting, but they are a cute and fun way to keep all the materials for one project in the same place. If you like the idea of knitting circles or bringing your work out in public, a project bag can be especially helpful.
• Point protectors, which are devices that you can put on the end of your knitting needles if you need to store a partially completed project for a while. These keep stitches from falling off the needles in storage.
• Knitting looms, which can add a different depth to your knit-work. These allow you to knit without needles, which some people think is faster. If you want to make a few projects quickly this might be a good investment.
While you may not find all of these knitting accessories useful, if you know what they are all for, you can be more prepared to choose what you need at the store.
Knitting is a fun past time that many young people are beginning to learn. It is a great addition to the DIY movement that has taken the world by storm, and can be a great way to save money, too. However, if you are taking up the art of knitting with the hopes of saving money and making things yourself, you probably don’t want to spend loads of money on craft supplies that will never get used. By knowing what knitting accessories are most useful, you can save your money and build your supply stash at the same time.