Tool Talk

This morning I woke up and found a post by nothingbutknit2 with a  “Tool Talk”  in Q ans A format with questions about the tools that we use. She gave us her answers about the tools that she uses and loves, and then invited us to comment about our own tool love/use or to blog about it ourselves.

Oh, I had to do this. I love my knitting tools. I am in terror of losing some of my knitting tools… I’m more afraid of losing my stitch markers than I am of wool moths! Before I show off some of my treasures I should share nothingbutknit2’s questions:

1. 1. Is there a tool that you own that is your absolute favorite? Which is it? What did you use before you had that tool?
   2. Is there a tool that you bought that is way less useful than you hoped? Does it detract from your crafting?
   3. Is there a tool that other people think is necessary and you just don’t use it? How do you get around it?
   4. How do you store your tools? Do they have their own special space?

Here are my answers:

1. I love my tools so much it is just impossible to pick just one. I dumped out my zippered pouch stuffed with my treasures and pulled out the ones that I absolutely, positively cannot live without.  Oh. It was kind of a big pile. I looked at all of the things I had on the floor and settled on the one item that was most essential to my knitting existence.

Before I bought the two sets of needles I used a whole drawer full of cable needles that had cables that fought with me, required dips into boiling water before they would behave themselves, and had joins that caught on the yarn. I had to keep buying new needles because I needed a cable with a longer/shorter length, or a second needle in the same size because I was casting on a new project, or any of a number of nonsense reasons.  I had lots and lots of bamboo and square double-pointed needles. Hunting down lost needles has become a hobby all of its own. Ugh!! All of that is replaced with these cool needle sets.

2. I don’t buy that many tools, so there really isn’t one that I am unhappy with. Some certainly get used more than others.

3. Okay, this may not be a tool in many knitter’s minds, but I have never used a lifeline. I took me a long time to figure out what everyone was talking about, and then when I saw some I did understand the potential, but having laughed in the face of knitting disaster for so many years, I continue to do so.

4. Tool storage is something that is big with me. I have a fabulous zipper pouch (with a llama on it!) that I carry the majority of my knitting tools in, and then I have a little plastic case with the neatest little compartments that I use for the small essentials like stitch markers.

So, there are my answers to the tool talk questions shared by nothingbutknit2 this morning. Jump in and give your own answers as a comment below, or feel free to write your own post that you share with a link on my blog. I’m heading off to NothingButKnit right now to post this link in her comment sections.

Happy knitting everyone, and treat your tools with the love that they deserve. 🙂

Author: Midnight Knitter

I weave, knit and read in Aurora, Colorado where my garden lives. I have 2 sons, a knitting daughter-in-law, a grandson and two exceptionally spoiled kittens. In 2014 I was diagnosed with a serious rare autoimmune disease called systemic sclerosis along with Sjogren's Disease and fibromyalgia. View all posts by Midnight Knitter