As you begin your knitting journey, you will find that your knitting rarely stays home. Indeed, one of the great things about knitting is its portability. Especially in summer, when so many people travel, knitters need a "go kit."
Following are the 10 essentials for knitting on the go -- just one knitter's opinion of course.
1. Scissors. While most wool can be broken by hand, people working with linen, cotton or silk will need an implement.
2. Small crochet hook. A smaller hook than your needle, but not too tiny, will make it easy to pick up dropped stitches and do other impromptu repairs.
3. Darning needle. Weave in your ends, seam pieces or use it to put your project on waste yarn or dental floss (see below).
4. Stitch markers. I carry ring markers (for indicating borders or pattern repeats) and locking stitch markers (to mark specific stitches).
5. Row counter. Just like stitch markers, row counters are essential for lazy knitters (like me) or forgetful knitters (like me), who want to outsource brain functions like counting.
6. Dental floss. A dual purpose tool, dental floss can replace waste yarn as a handy stitch holder and its built in cutters can cut yarn when your scissors go AWOL.
7. Calculator/smart phone. Between figuring out sizes and making purchase decisions, knitting involves a lot of lower mathematics. Again, outsource! And save your brain space for knitting patterns.
8. Measuring tape. Measure stuff, 'nuff said.
9. Pen/pencil. I'm a big believer in marking up my patterns, taking note of where I stop knitting so I know where to start again. Sometimes, when you put a project down for the day, you may not pick it up again for weeks, even years.
10. Paper. See above.
Plus your needles and yarn, silly.
