The other day, I decided to make something that required doubling up worsted weight yarn—which in turn required Size 13 knitting needles. My original idea was to do the project in the round, but using a 16” circular wasn’t going to cut it. I dove into my under-the-bed bin to search for my #13 dpns (double-point needles). Yes, you guessed it…I couldn’t find them! I rooted around in the bin for ages. I found every other size dpn in creation, in every conceivable material (wood, bamboo, aluminum, etc.), but NO SIZE 13s! I ended up having to go with Size 13 straights and just knit the project in a different way.
This brings me to my hint: For God’s sake, organize your supplies!
This is a clear-cut case of “Do as I say, not as I do.” I have my circular needles in my closet in one of those hanging organizers, I have my yarn grouped according to quality (nice yarn in one large bin, rot-gut acrylic in another), and all my crochet hooks are in a special pouch I crocheted. My straight needles and dpns, however, are in a haphazard MESS in one of the bins. The best thing I could probably do is to find containers for the straights and dpns, and perhaps rubber-band needles together so that I don’t keep ending up with one size 8 and one size 13.
Finding the time for this is another matter…
My DPNs (and the straights that are short enough, as well as stitch markers, tape measure, scissors...) are in one of those cutlery trays originally meant for kitchen drawers. The sets are rubberbanded together (hair rubbers) and in theory somewhat sorted by size. Of course everything ends up all over the coffee table while I'm working on something, but at least I know how to sort out the mess at the end of the project.
ReplyDeleteShort sections of PVC pipe work well to store staright and DPNs in. One cap cemeneted in place, the other end removable, with fabric in both caps to protect points and you have a nice way to organize and protect inexpensively.
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