No knitter likes to drop stitches, it’s a pain in the neck! When you’re nearly done with a sweater and you have to put your work down, only to pick it up again to realize several stitches slipped off the needles…a nightmare.
To prevent this from happening make sure to leave your work in a safe place if you have to put it down. If you’re not home, leaving it in a close fitting bag about the same size as your needles helps a lot (the needles don’t have much room to move around).
Also try to have the right amount of stitches for your needle size, don’t try to have too many stitches on the needles if they are short. Use needles long enough for the project you are working on!
If none of the above is possible, here’s an idea to keep your stitches safe 😉
The idea is really simple: use corks to make the perfect knitting needle stoppers for your WAK needles. Your works in progress will be safe and cork is the perfect match for your wooden knitting needles. These are the materials you will need:
– Two corks, new or used. They can be any shape or size, but they should both be the same. You’ll need two corks for each pair of needles.
– Acrylic paint in your favorite color.
– Paintbrush.
– Masking tape or washi tape.
To start, we’ll fit the corks. To do this, jab one of the corks onto the end of your knitting needle. It will be easy to pierce the cork with the needle.
Do the same for the other cork. Remember that each set of corks will only work for similar sized needles. If you want to use them for bigger needles it’s best to make another set of needle stoppers with another pair of corks.
We chose to make a tricolor striped design, if you want to make them the same as ours, use the masking tape to make the first part of the design.
Now paint the cork with acrylic paint in your favorite color. Don’t mix it with water. It doesn’t matter if you paint over the masking tape, when you remove it will look great.
While the first section dries, paint the top of the cork with another color.
Remove the masking tape when the first color is dry.
This time cover the ends with masking tape to delimit the middle. Paint it with a different color.
Last, but not least, when the middle section is dry, repeat the same process as for the first stripe, but on the end of the cork. If you are careful, you can paint this section without masking tape.
Repeat the above steps for the second cork, try to make it the same as the first. They’ll be used as a matched set!
When you have to put down your needles in the middle of a project use your decorative needle stoppers to make sure your stitches don’t slide off the needle. You’ll never have problems again! Keep a pair of these stoppers handy, it’s a good idea to keep a pair in your knitting bag 😉
We want to see how you personalize your cork stoppers, so don’t forget to share a photo on social networks using #weareknitters so we can see your creations, we love to see them!
