"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

5/1/10

Taking the Wild Card



Topic Day 6:
Do you have a particular knitting/crochet tool or piece of equipment that you love to use? Maybe it is an old bent pair of needles that used to belong to someone special, or a gorgeous rosewood hand-turned crochet hook that you just love the feel of? Write about what you love it. (Tag: knitcroblowc)

Post-it® Arrow Flags, "Sign Here", 4 Colors with Dispensers, 120 per PackI am going to take the Wild Card topic for today's post. The Day 6 topic is to blog about a past FO and I can't think of one I want to write about. So, instead, I shall write about one of my invaluable knitting tools: 


 I discovered this little gem when I had my shop. Besides knitting, I  also sold Cross Stitch supplies. If you've ever done Cross Stitch, you know how hard it can be to follow a chart. One of my customers came in and was using these arrows to keep track of where she was on the chart. I thought it was a wonderful idea and adopted it. It just naturally led to me using them in my other crafts too.


Nancy's Knit Knacks Electronic Row CounterI love the arrows not only because I can use them to point to what row I am on in a pattern, but in many cases I can use them in place of a mechanical or electronic row counter.

Clover Knitting Stitch Counter Mini Kacha-KachaUsing a row counter has one huge requirement. You have to remember to advance it one number after knitting the row. I never used to have this problem, but with age (and damage done in a car accident) I find my short term memory failing on me enough to make clicking that row counter difficult.

Some people like to check rows off with a pencil, or write down what row they've done as they go along. I've done that one too. But I didn't always remember to bring a pencil and paper with me. Or I'd just plain forget to write it down.


3M Post It Arrow Flags .47"X1.7" 96/Pkg Assorted Colors Neon 684ARR-4, 3 Item(s)/OrderWith the arrows, all I need to do to keep track is move the arrow to the beginning of each row of the pattern or chart when starting it. I never have a problem remembering this because when following a pattern that requires this much effort on my part (as opposed to a pattern that is easily memorized) I am always asking the question "what do I do next?". I look at the pattern, look at my knitting, and can instantly tell if I've knitted the marked row or not.

Arrow flags are reusable over and over and do not damage the patterns in any way. They are easy to store in your tool box/bag. What's more, they are cheap. For just a few dollars I can have 120 row markers. What's not to love about that?


~~~~~~~~~~


On the knitting front I have put a few inches on the lace shrug. It's still a long ways to the needed 46 inches though.


Here is where I was on the Navy Textured yesterday afternoon.




I've added a bit more since then. You can see the horizontal stripe pattern I have substituted for the garter stitch. It is at the top. Granite stitch is in the middle, and basket weave is under that. The bottom is the 2x2 rib welt. I am enjoying this project very much.


Have a nice day.




No comments:

Post a Comment