Monday, January 30, 2006

The Beginner's Knitting Bag/Supplies and Tools

Opening the UFO bag put a big smile on my face. In addition to the half finished project, the remaining yarn, the required needles and the pattern, the bag contained 3 other pairs of needles in unrelated sizes, a single needle with a broken tip and another unrelated pattern.

I remember those days, back when I could keep all my knitting tools in my knitting bag. Back when I only had one knitting bag in which I kept my current project with all those tools.

Now? Well, I always have at least two bags with active projects in them -- the portable project and the home project. And then there's always a couple of "less active" projects lying around -- sometimes just a pattern and the yarn set aside, sometimes a UFO or a design-in-progress.

My supplies and tools? I have two cardboard tubes that used to store scotch bottles for my needles -- a taller and a shorter. Then another, flatter box with a lid for things like cable needles, stitch markers and the like. (This used to contain a fancy wine-bottle opener. I sense an interesting trend... ) These I keep in a cupboard with all my sock yarn, below my two shelves of knitting books. Beside this is the desk in which I keep more yarn, design projects on the go, and assorted magazines and notes.

The bag that's with me the most is a largish clear-sided pencil case. In this bag I keep my most critical tools: scissors, pencil and eraser, a small notebook, calculator, stitch holders, a needle gauge/ruler, a couple of crochet hooks in different sizes, a tape measure, and an Altoids tin containing stitch markers, 3 different sizes of darning needles, and lots of safety pins.

This pencil case tool bag moves around between project bags. I never go to a class or workshop without it. I have an edited version that I've built for carrying on planes.

Chefs carry their own knives with them. Me, I carry my tool bag.

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