Yarning: Tools of the trade

My current favourite knitting needles: Short tipped interchangeable needles from Knitpicks, they are portable, and easy to use for small projects.

I also like the regular length interchangeable needles from Knitpicks. I've had my set for 8 years now and they're only just starting to strip and need replacing.

I find that straight needles with the nub at the end poke me while I'm knitting. I have a friend who uses the long needles and sticks one under her arm and knits freely with the other. I've tried knitting that way, but it felt too awkward and bulky.

I like using circular needles for as many things as I can. Saying that, I still struggle with using two at the same time to make circular items and have never gotten the hang of magic loop.

I will use double pointed needles if I have to but I'm notorious for losing stitches off them. I have a wooden set from Knitpicks but I find them a bit dainty and have broken/sat on quite a few.

Regarding construction and material, I heavily favour wood needles. I find them so comfortable and easy on my hands, they warm up to body temperature which makes them cozy to use. I use plastic sometimes and very rarely, metal. I find metal hurts my hands because it remains cold. I tend to grip harder with metal as well, so my hands will cramp after a while. Not to mention the time I was using tiny double pointed metal needles and wedged one under my thumbnail by accident, ouch. (That's a hard thing to forget!).

For crochet hooks I will generally use metal and plastic. I also have a pair of wooden ones from knitpicks that are interchangeable for Tunisian crochet. (Although I've only used them for regular crocheting so far sans cord-shh!) My current favourites are my Clover Ergonomic crochet hooks. They are metal with a lovely rubber grip that doesn't irritate my crochet callus. On the first finger of my right hand I've built up a callus at the edge of my nail that gets sore and tender when I crochet a lot. Using my clover hooks is lovely because my callus doesn't hurt and my hands don't cramp.

WIPS: Not much on the go right now, I've spent the last 3 weeks packing and moving all my things,so there's been little time for the enjoyable things, like knitting!

I finished my Star Baby blanket and I am quite pleased with how it turned out, it looks like a beautiful shooting star floating in the sky!

I'm working on a simple granny square baby blanket for a friend, I'm not sure what I think of the colour yet.

I improvised a cat bed for Guiness finally. I used some scrap chunky and WW yarn and I'm quite tickled with how it looks.

I made a granny square with some WW bobbly yarn and then made another granny square of the same size using some soft chunky yarn.

I then seamed them together and voila! Cat bed! She wouldn't use it while it was on the floor, but my better half had an idea and put it on her cat tree, now she can't help but use it! I flip it over every few days to give her a new texture to lie on. (Spy the birds nest outside the window!).

She likes it, she really likes it!