needles say theyâre cold, heavy, and inflexible and that the slipperiness makes for dropped stitches. Me? I love them.
PLASTIC
These vary almost too much to discuss effectively. If youâre thinking of those old, blunt, floppy needles that were as smooth as bricks ⦠well. You can still buy those, but there are needle manufacturers that have elevated them way beyond that. There are plastic needles with a metal core to make them stronger; plastic needles with special tips; transparent colored needles that turn my 14-year-oldâs crank pretty hard; and plastic needles that,in short, do not suck. Overall, todayâs plastic needle is flexible, warm, light, and probably the best option to give a five-year-old boy just learning to knit. (Having been poked with several kinds of knitting needle by a five-year-old boy just learning to knit, I can vouch for this.)
CASEIN NEEDLES
These are warm, light, and slightly flexible. Casein needles are made from milk protein and, as such, three things are true about them.
They share many of the advantages as plastic, but are a natural material.
Many strict vegetarians or vegans eschew them because they are an animal product.
They taste (not that Iâm suggesting eating them) very, very bad, so donât hold one in your mouth.
OTHER MATERIALS
Knitting needles continue to surprise me. Some come with moral problems, like ivory, tortoiseshell, and walrus tusk needles, all of which are now illegal to buy or produce. If you have some, passed down from a knitter who didnât know better or a time when they werenât illegal, guard them with your life; they will not pass this way again and are an interesting footnote in knittingâs history. There are bone needles, which may be an issue for some knitters. (Frankly, they creep me out.) There are beautiful glass needles, more for show than go, and hand-painted wooden ones. For a mere $1,800 you can have solid gold needles, but I shudder to think what youâd be compelled to do when you inevitably lost one.
The Top Ten Reasons to Carry a Knitting Bag
Done right, youâll always have everything you need. This works only if you regard the knitting bag as a sacred carrier of knitting notions that never go anywhere except in the bag. You take something out, you put it back in. (This was one of the barriers to effective knitting bag use. I would take out the tape measure while I was home, because I couldnât find one of my 72 others, and fail to put it back in. It would then enter the tape measureâsucking void that is my home and Iâd never find it again.) Do not, I repeat,
do not
put the stuff on the kitchen counter. This way lies madness.
If there were some sort of emergency, like an earthquake or a house fire, you could pick up your knitting bag from its spot by the door and flee with it into the night. I bet youâll be the only person at the shelter with something to do.
If you put everything you need to accomplish the project in the bag when you begin the project, youâll never again lose six hours and 35 minutes of your lifeshredding the stash looking for the last ball of blue merino you need to finish the sweater.
Unlike when you jam a project into your purse, you wonât need to spend your knitting time untangling lace weight from house keys.
The breath mints you keep in your purse wonât have yarn fuzz on them. Just regular purse lint.
Your 2 mm DPNs wonât poke a hole in your juice box. (This is more likely than you think. Before I succumbed to a knitting bag, I had to give up grape juice. It really stains.)
Youâll have more room to carry knitting stuff, as it doesnât have to compete with your purse contents.
You can take only your knitting bag into the yarn shop when youâre going in to knit with your friends or to get help with a project. This means that when you inevitably decide to buy yarn, you will have to go back to the car to get your wallet.
PLASTIC
These vary almost too much to discuss effectively. If youâre thinking of those old, blunt, floppy needles that were as smooth as bricks ⦠well. You can still buy those, but there are needle manufacturers that have elevated them way beyond that. There are plastic needles with a metal core to make them stronger; plastic needles with special tips; transparent colored needles that turn my 14-year-oldâs crank pretty hard; and plastic needles that,in short, do not suck. Overall, todayâs plastic needle is flexible, warm, light, and probably the best option to give a five-year-old boy just learning to knit. (Having been poked with several kinds of knitting needle by a five-year-old boy just learning to knit, I can vouch for this.)
CASEIN NEEDLES
These are warm, light, and slightly flexible. Casein needles are made from milk protein and, as such, three things are true about them.
They share many of the advantages as plastic, but are a natural material.
Many strict vegetarians or vegans eschew them because they are an animal product.
They taste (not that Iâm suggesting eating them) very, very bad, so donât hold one in your mouth.
OTHER MATERIALS
Knitting needles continue to surprise me. Some come with moral problems, like ivory, tortoiseshell, and walrus tusk needles, all of which are now illegal to buy or produce. If you have some, passed down from a knitter who didnât know better or a time when they werenât illegal, guard them with your life; they will not pass this way again and are an interesting footnote in knittingâs history. There are bone needles, which may be an issue for some knitters. (Frankly, they creep me out.) There are beautiful glass needles, more for show than go, and hand-painted wooden ones. For a mere $1,800 you can have solid gold needles, but I shudder to think what youâd be compelled to do when you inevitably lost one.
The Top Ten Reasons to Carry a Knitting Bag
Done right, youâll always have everything you need. This works only if you regard the knitting bag as a sacred carrier of knitting notions that never go anywhere except in the bag. You take something out, you put it back in. (This was one of the barriers to effective knitting bag use. I would take out the tape measure while I was home, because I couldnât find one of my 72 others, and fail to put it back in. It would then enter the tape measureâsucking void that is my home and Iâd never find it again.) Do not, I repeat,
do not
put the stuff on the kitchen counter. This way lies madness.
If there were some sort of emergency, like an earthquake or a house fire, you could pick up your knitting bag from its spot by the door and flee with it into the night. I bet youâll be the only person at the shelter with something to do.
If you put everything you need to accomplish the project in the bag when you begin the project, youâll never again lose six hours and 35 minutes of your lifeshredding the stash looking for the last ball of blue merino you need to finish the sweater.
Unlike when you jam a project into your purse, you wonât need to spend your knitting time untangling lace weight from house keys.
The breath mints you keep in your purse wonât have yarn fuzz on them. Just regular purse lint.
Your 2 mm DPNs wonât poke a hole in your juice box. (This is more likely than you think. Before I succumbed to a knitting bag, I had to give up grape juice. It really stains.)
Youâll have more room to carry knitting stuff, as it doesnât have to compete with your purse contents.
You can take only your knitting bag into the yarn shop when youâre going in to knit with your friends or to get help with a project. This means that when you inevitably decide to buy yarn, you will have to go back to the car to get your wallet.
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