If you have a box of needles you should have many duplicates. Knit the scarf with needles you like then replace them with some you don’t like. In some you could leave one needle in the work and use the other to attach the ball of yarn to the middle of the scarf. A small touch of glue on the back side of first and last stitch on the needle should hold the stitches on the needle. You could also use point protectors, little rubber caps that go over the point of the needle or a small rubber band wrapped on end of the needle.
On another you could leave both needles in work and use a little glue to hold the stitches.
I use the case [U]that comes with[/U] my various sets of interchangeable needle sets. But for all other needles, della Q has a great variety of circular and straight needle cases. Lightweight, and not too expensive. I like their stuff. I bought The Que Theo SECURE Circular Needle Case in red for my Signature (circular) needle set. Click here. I ordered it and received it within days. Good service.
And Namaste has a great design for circulars, too. I have 3 of them full of Addi circs. WEBS carries them, and they’re not too expensive either. Click here. I bought red, peacock and eggplant.
I purchased the Namaste (needle) Binder last year, and I love it to pieces. However, it’s getting hard to find. I don’t think Namaste is manufacturing them anymore, so you have to search the online shops for them. I bought red! My favorite piece, so far.
[B]I treasure my knitting needles so much. [/B] I like to protect them, and organize them, to the best of my ability and budget. Yeah, what’s a budget, you ask? Well, giving up Starbucks while on-the-go frees up a lot of cash! And when forced to buy coffee on-the-go, the purchase of the [B]Drip Coffee of the Day[/B] saves a lot! There is always [I]something[/I] that can be cut from your life that might free up cash for your knitting accessories!
I had this same problem! I had this big red box and I bought dividers to put in it, they very super cheap from Target so I figured why not and it helped A LOT. And for buttons and small stuff, I have this old jelly-bean holder thing, I haven’t seen one in YEARS but it sure helps me. I really like the idea of being organized, until it comes time to actually become organized :P(;
OK After everyone’s suggestions, I got an over the door shoe bag that would hold 12 pairs of shoes, making 24 pockets. While the needles do lean out a bit it definitly better than the giant boxes.
I sorted the straights into the pockets by size. I then put the stitch Holders in the bottom left pocket, the sissors and stitch markers in the next bottom bocket, and the needle sizer and other miscelanious tools (I admit I do not know what all of them are) in the last 2 pockets. I put all my individule circulars in the remaining pockets, but I do not like that, since they are still tangled and not sorted by size or length. I will have to get a real case for these next time I get a paycheck.
I have the interchangable circular kits in the top drawer of my file cabinet where my patterns are.
I now need to decide which needles I want to keep. But that will be a project for another day as I am recovering for Major surgery and not up to the challenge right now. At least now I can find what I want fairly easily!
Thanks everyone for your suggestions and ideas to tackle my orginization problem. I appreciate it!
I did something simular with a long kitchen towel roll. I cellotaped thin card on one end and a jar lid on the other. I stick the needles into the card end. But I’m looking for a new idea because the tube is not big enough and it’s not stable enough and keeps falling over.
For all my straight needles, I have them bound together as a pair with a rubber band, or piece of string. Started doing that after I kept misplacing one needle, or when my son would run off with one of them to use in a “swordfight” with his cousins.