Chapter 05 · Practical guide
The best knitting tools are often small: the marker that does not snag, the row counter you can find, the scissors that stay in the project bag and the blocking kit that makes finishing less fiddly.
What to look for
The boring little things are usually the most useful: small scissors, a tape measure, stitch markers, a darning needle, something for counting rows and a way to rescue a dropped stitch. They are cheap individually and maddening when the one you need is somewhere else.
After that, buy for the kind of knitting you actually do. Cable needles, blocking kit, yarn winders and chart holders are brilliant when they solve a real recurring problem; they do not need to become compulsory clutter.
Section 01
The little tools that earn their place in a project bag because they get used constantly.
A compact click counter for keeping track of rows and stitches without reaching for a phone.
Small enough to live in the notions pouch, and purpose-built for the one job you need it to do mid-row: remember where you are.
Two compact stainless-steel sewing scissors in 3.6-inch and 4.5-inch sizes, with fine pointed tips for thread and yarn ends.
A useful little pair for the project bag, with a spare for the knitting chair or another notions pouch.
A mixed 28-needle set with self-threading and large-eye hand-sewing needles, supplied with two wooden storage cases.
The larger eyes make yarn ends less of a wrestling match, and the little wooden cases stop loose needles vanishing into the bottom of the bag.
A 150cm / 60-inch dual-sided retractable tape plus a second soft tape, both marked in centimetres and inches.
The retractable one lives neatly in a notions pouch; the spare soft tape is handy when you want to measure a larger piece without fighting the case.
A compact multi-purpose gauge for checking knitting-needle sizes in metric, US and Japanese standards, with a swatch ruler built in.
Useful when a mystery needle has escaped its packet: check the size, then use the same tool to measure stitches and rows across a swatch.
A spring-steel stitch holder with a rounded tip for parking live stitches safely while another section is worked.
Simple, sturdy and much less alarming than trying to keep live stitches on a spare needle while the project is being shoved back into a bag.
A pair of aluminium cable needles in 6mm and 8mm for holding stitches to the front or back while working cable patterns.
A compact, sensible pair for bigger cables without buying a whole box of near-identical tools.
Ten soft silicone point protectors for capping knitting needles when the project is put down.
They stop live stitches sliding off in the bag and make sharp needle tips a bit less enthusiastic about stabbing everything nearby.
Three laminated-birch repair tools with a hook at one end and a needle point at the other for rescuing dropped stitches and small fixes.
Tiny, easy to stash and genuinely useful when a dropped stitch decides to head south several rows before you notice.
A set of numbered locking stitch markers marked 0–9 in two colours, for counting repeats, sections and progress without relying on memory.
The numbers make these genuinely different from ordinary markers: useful when you need to label rows, repeats or sections rather than simply mark a point.
A 12-piece set with ten sheep-shaped locking stitch markers and two matching knitting needle stoppers.
The locking markers handle repeats and section points while you knit; the two stoppers keep live stitches on the needles when the project goes back in the bag.
A 100-piece pack of blue markers from KnitPro's Mindful Collection for keeping track of positions and sections as you knit.
A 100-piece pack means enough markers for projects with lots of repeats, plus spares for the inevitable few that migrate into bags and sofas.
A large 300-piece set of colourful locking stitch markers in ten colours, supplied with blunt sewing needles for finishing work.
Ten colours make it easy to colour-code sections or repeats, and 300 markers is enough to leave a handful in several project bags.
A 12-piece set of knitting and sewing themed charms that can be used as decorative locking stitch markers.
A more giftable, characterful marker set for knitters who like their notions to have a bit of personality rather than looking purely utilitarian.
A set of 13 cat-themed locking stitch markers for marking stitches, sections and repeats while you knit.
They work as everyday locking markers, with enough cat-shaped silliness to make a useful little present rather than just another packet of notions.
Section 02
For the bit after the knitting: shaping, drying, tidying and making the finished thing look properly finished.
Eight stainless-steel blocking wires, each about a metre long, for pinning out long straight edges, lace and shaped sections more evenly.
A genuinely different tool from blocking pins: thread the wire through an edge and you can straighten a whole section without placing a pin every few centimetres.
A concentrated no-rinse wash for hand knits and other delicates, suitable for wool, cashmere, silk and everyday fabrics.
Useful for the final wash before blocking and for looking after finished knits afterwards — with no extra rinse stage when a wet jumper already weighs approximately a small Labrador.
A battery-powered fabric shaver with a large shaving head, three mesh-hole sizes and a height-adjustment cap for removing pills and bobbles.
Hand knits are meant to be worn. This is the maintenance tool for making a well-loved jumper look considerably less well-loved.
A folding mesh drying rack that supports jumpers and other knits flat, with fold-in legs and a frame that folds for storage.
It lets air circulate around a wet knit without sacrificing every clean towel and every horizontal surface in the house.
A set of 20 comb-style blocking pins for holding larger sections of knitting evenly in place while it dries.
These do a different job from ordinary T-pins: each comb holds a wider section at once, which makes straight edges and larger pieces quicker to pin out neatly.
A nine-pack of extra-thick blocking boards with grids, 100 T-pins and a cork holder for the pins.
A full blocking setup in one box: useful for shaping finished knitting neatly and keeping measurements consistent while it dries.
Three pairs of stainless-steel sock blockers in small, medium and large sizes, designed for shaping and drying hand-knitted socks.
A different job from flat blocking mats: these give hand-knitted socks their finished shape while they dry and cover three common sizes in one set.
Section 03
Swifts, winders and tension helpers for making the yarn itself easier to manage.
A smooth wooden yarn swift in laminated and natural birch, designed to hold a hank so it can rotate freely while yarn is wound.
The civilised alternative to making another human stand there with a hank looped around both hands while you wind it.
A compact electric yarn winder with adjustable speed and a dual-spring tension system for turning loose yarn into neat centre-pull cakes.
Takes the repetitive hand-cranking out of winding yarn into cakes, which is particularly welcome if you wind several hanks at a time.
A matched hand-crank ball winder and umbrella swift made from rosewood, with both pieces clamping to a table for winding hanks into centre-pull cakes.
Everything needed for hank-to-cake duty in one set, and considerably nicer to leave within sight than a pair of plastic contraptions.
Ten adjustable zinc-alloy yarn-guide rings in different designs, intended to help guide yarn across a finger and maintain more consistent tension.
Ten adjustable rings give you room to experiment with yarn position and finger fit before deciding whether a tension ring actually helps your knitting.
Four stainless-steel coiled yarn-guide rings in small and medium sizes, with twin guide slots for separating strands.
This is the style Lou actually uses: particularly handy when managing more than one strand for colourwork without turning your fingers into a small yarn traffic jam.
Section 04
Useful for keeping charts, notes and the tiny bits together instead of losing them into the sofa.
A compact double-layer zipped organiser with elastic loops and mesh pockets for the small tools that otherwise roam loose around a project bag.
Exactly the right scale for scissors, repair hooks, needles, markers and other tiny essentials — one pouch to grab instead of six tiny searches.
A foldable 7 × 10.2-inch chart holder with a magnetic ruler and four magnets for keeping a paper pattern upright and marking the current row.
Much easier than repeatedly finding your place on a chart that has quietly slid under the sofa cushion.
A guided knitting journal for recording yarn, needle sizes, project details and alterations, with space for both straightforward and more involved project notes.
Useful for the information you always swear you will remember and absolutely will not remember six months later.
Section 05
Not strictly knitting tools, but very good at making a long knitting session easier.
A hands-free rechargeable neck light with three colour temperatures, six brightness settings and independently adjustable flexible arms.
Dark yarn in evening light is a special form of punishment. This puts the light where the stitches are without occupying either hand.
A weighted floor stand with a flexible gooseneck and rotating holder for phones and tablets from roughly 4.7 to 13 inches.
Keeps a digital pattern, tutorial or audiobook controls visible while both hands remain busy with the actual knitting.
A 5× hands-free magnifier with a 10× auxiliary lens, adjustable neck support and integrated LED lighting, usable around the neck, on a desk or handheld.
For tiny stitches, dark yarn or fiddly repairs when brighter light alone is not quite enough.
A tiny 1.5-litre swing-top desktop bin that sits neatly beside a knitting chair for yarn ends, snipped threads and other miniature debris.
Not remotely a knitting product, which is exactly why it is useful: all those little yarn ends finally have somewhere to go other than your jumper, the carpet or your tea.
If you buy one thing here, make it the stitch markers. Bad markers ruin good yarn.
