Topping It Off

Like the side dishes at a salad bar, the hints and help you’ll find in this section can either make your knitting experience easier and more pleasurable or just complicate it. There is such a thing as going overboard with knitting, and many people end up overdoing it with accessories and all of the fun little gadgets you can buy. While many of them are wonderful and can help make things go faster, seem simpler, and improve the quality of your projects, others are just a waste of your money. In this section we’ll cover the different accessories you can buy as well as when you may want to make the investment and when you should keep your credit card in your wallet. We’ll also cover the care and keeping of your creations so they stay as beautiful as possible for as long as possible (if you’ve ever shrunk a sweater, you don’t want to miss that section).

Accessories

Who doesn’t love accessories? Purses, earrings, bracelets, cufflinks, sunglasses – sometimes a whole outfit comes together just by adding the right accessories. But chances are that you’ve also seen that hapless person walking down the street who has definitely overstocked his or her accessory drawer. You can hardly tell where their clothing ends and the accessory begins… and not in a good way. Just as in fashion and dressing, knitting has a good, healthy level of accessorizing and a level where your friends step back, look at you, and say, “Okay, where did you get the money for all of this? Give us your credit card before you max it out again.”

Remember, knitting is a hobby. Sure, there are some people who take it up as a profession, and we’re not including them here. For those of you who aren’t professional knitters, remember that your hobby shouldn’t require that you get a second or third job just to pay for it. A hobby is meant to reduce your stress and entertain you, not make the overdraft protection on your bank account have to warm up for the marathon spending sprees you take.

We’ve covered the absolute basics, right? You need yarn, needles, a bag, a tape measure, stitch holders, and maybe bobbins. That’s your “gotta have” list. If you’ve made it this far into the book without hitting the craft store, you have no idea what lies in wait. If you’ve already been through the knitting/crochet/yarn section at your local craft store, you understand the previous warning, and chances are you also want to know what some of the funky things you saw really were. We’ll try and cover many of them here.

To Learn About Varioius Measuring Instruments for Knitting, Click Here