Needles. Can you ever have enough of them? I think not. I remember being at my LYS about a year into my “return to knitting”. (That means I learned when I was young, and returned to it again three years ago). I was buying yarn to make a felted bag, and bought circular needles in the size that I would need. When I got home and put this new project in my knitting bag, I was so dismayed to realize that I already HAD size 6 circular needles in a 24″ length, for pete’s sake! I ran through my options – a) driving a half hour back up there to return them (feeling like an unorganized idiot for not realizing I already had that size), or b) giving them away to someone who needed that size. What to do? The next day, I was going through knitting books, deciding on all the fun things I wanted to knit, when it dawned on me that duplicate needles are a very good thing. Indeed – a VERY good thing! Of course I need multiple needles, because I have multiple projects going on at the same time and sometimes the size I need is in use already. (Shuffling the stitches off onto a stitch holder? Too fiddly, most of the time. Unless I don’t have the option of an extra pair of needles in that size. What is the average number of “works in progress” for knitters?)
Yes, I definitely “get” the multiple needles in all sizes thing now. Thank goodness for needle organizers. (Although I did have fun throwing a lot of my needles on the floor to take a picture of my “needle stash”. We have yarn stash – is there such a thing as needle stash?) You know, this picture is deceiving. I have more needles than that. But it was great to put so many out on the floor, because I updated my needle inventory card and then got them all organized.
Now that I have my Namaste Vintage Knitting Bag, I am looking for all different kinds of fun (pretty) needles to display around the outside. Who has some great ones that I need to know about?
Sheri Ilearnedalessonabout”stash”earlyon,tooandI’llhavetosharethatwithyouinthenextpost
One can never have too many needles. Or too much yarn. Or too many ‘works in progress’!
Two observations I have for you: 1. You definitely NEED the Options needle set from Knitpicks. 2. The Namaste Bag is gorgeous in and of itself and continues to be gorgeous no matter what the type of needle is you put around the outside.
I say… ‘Stash on”
Ok, so Sheri…you NEED to have the new circs that The Ernst’s are making now. See them on Sheila’s blog. http://www.glassnut.blogspot.com/ She is hopefully selling them like stuff you put syrup on, right now at Stitches Midwest. The points are very pointy and the needles are dreamy. Take it from a satisfied customer…:o)
I just wanted to share my experience with sock knitting, so far. I got so excited about the yarns, that I only knit one sock before going to the next yarn. Just had to see how that would knit up. So, I had 2 single socks for myself. Then I knit some infant socks and a pair of socks for my granddaughter. Those both went well. I got to thinking it was time to make my first sock a mate. And so I did. It turned out about a good size smaller and I had knit so tight that the area going from one circ needle to the other, actually pulls up some. Overly zealous about not having those ‘ladders’ I had read about online!! The lesson I learned for me, is I need to knit my socks in pairs. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean I can’t have multiple yarns going at once. Happy knitting to everyone.
Is that your whole needle stash? I admit, my first thought was: oh that’s NOTHING. Hahahahahaha.
Whoops. I guess I have to take a picture of *gulp* my uh, inventory, then….
Thank you for this post. I have to show it to my fiance who was freaking out that I needed to buy size 3s today. He thinks I have enough needles and doesn’t understand about things called size.