Thrifty Tips and Tricks

As a knitter, I am always trying to save money where I can, basically because I am frequently spending a lot of money that I don’t have. I’ve got to save my money on boring necessities where I can, like notions, because I will inevitably splurge on a $25 skein of hand-painted wool with no project in mind for it.

I restrict my needle intake to those that I absolutely require. If I am working on a project that asks for needles I don’t have, let’s say 9” single point nines for example, I am going to buy 16” circular nines, because I know I can make hats with a heavy worsted weight yarn with those needles (besides the fact that I have sworn off single pointed needles – see earlier post). I buy lots of yarn and I love knitting books. It just isn’t satisfying for me to have them for a week and then return them to the library.

So, here are some tips and tricks for incorporating household items in my knitting:

• You can use a paper clip as a stitch marker. You can also use safety pins, rubber bands, or tiny scraps of paper stabbed onto your needle.
• Rubber bands are excellent point protectors.
• A spare double pointed needle can double as a cable needle.
• Waste yarn for holding stitches; in fact, that is one substitution that I emphatically prefer over the recommended notion. Why use a stiff metal contraption that costs around five bucks to hold your stitches when you could use waste yarn that doesn’t contort your project, stab you when you try it on, or cost you any extra money?

To be honest, I not only resort to these tactics to save money, but also because sometimes when knitting a project, I will take it with me and not have the forsight to bring my notions with me. This results in being stuck in an office and needing to come up with a MacGuyver-esque strategy to be able to move on with my project.

No mention of notions could be complete without mentioning my favorite knitting notion, the Chibi. The Chibi is my favorite knitting product, and deserves a post unto itself - look for that in the next few days. In the meantime, please share some of your favorite thrifty tips and tricks with everybody. I look forward to reading them!