Every few months, I ask the members of our Knit Club what knitting things they are dreaming of.
I do this because honestly, ya’ll are much smarter than I am. And I can’t tell you how often someone will ask for something and I will start using it and say, “Where has this been all my life?!”
This was absolutely the case for our Cable Locks.
One of our wonderful Knit Club members asked for point protectors that would ACTUALLY stay on the needles and do their job of keeping the stitches safe.
At the time I thought, “I don’t even use point protectors. Why not just pull your needles through to the cords and call it good?”
But I know that everyone knits differently and I always want to be able to provide tools that make EVERYONE’s knitting life easier. So, I started doing some experimenting and testing and released two new point protector options: Tip Ties and Cable Locks.
I patted myself on the back and thought, “Those are wonderful. They’ll be exactly what she needs.” Then I went about my business and never added them to my own knitting bag.
After all, I don’t use point protectors…
That is, I didn’t use point protectors until I cast on a shawl at Christmas time…
I knew this shawl was going to get bigger and bigger, so I planned ahead and used one of my longer circular needles. But this meant that I had a LOT of extra cord hanging around, and as I knit those long rows, those hundreds of stitches would relax themselves all down the cord.
I found myself CONSTANTLY having to scrunch them back up together, close to my left needle tip so that they were ready to be knitted.
I guess maybe I was a little rough about it because I began to notice that my yarn was catching just a touch on the join between the cord and the needle tip. No problem, I shoved the cord back in a little tighter and carried on.
But it kept happening (which was REALLY annoying) and in my irritation at having to scrunch the stitches again, I realized that each time I scrunched those stitches back up towards my needle, I was unconsciously yanking on the cord as I squished them up. That little yank was pulling the cord out of the tip just a tiny little bit causing a little drag on the stitches, and honestly, probably ruining my circular needle. ????
That’s when I decided I needed a cable lock on my needle.
Not to keep the stitches on the needle (I had plenty of extra cord), but to help me keep them all so close to my needle so I could stop yanking on it. ????
But of course, these little guys don’t just keep stitches close to the needle.
If you put one at each end, they also keep stitches from accidentally sliding off while sitting in your knitting bag.
Or, even act as stops if you need to steal the needle tips for another project.
Last time, these sold out in 24 hours! So grab a set of these versatile tools while you have the chance. ????