Accessories and Notions

What to buy, in order

1. A tapestry needle and stitch markers. Cost almost nothing, needed immediately, and routinely missing from kits.
2. A tape measure. You cannot check gauge without one, and gauge is what decides whether a garment fits.
3. A case for your tools. Not for tidiness - because it stops you buying duplicates of hooks and needles you already own and cannot find.
4. Blocking mats and T-pins, once you make something whose shape matters. This is the accessory that most changes your finished results.
5. A yarn winder, once you start buying hanks - and a swift with it, because a hank has to be held open while it is wound.

The two that genuinely change the work

Blocking mats. Blocking is wetting or steaming a finished piece and pinning it to shape while it dries, and on wool it is transformative - stitches even out, lace opens, shaping sets. A lace shawl that has not been blocked does not look like lace. Mats need enough thickness to hold a T-pin upright and a printed grid to square a piece against.

A winder and swift. Most yarn-shop yarn is sold as a hank - a large loop twisted into a bundle - and it is genuinely unusable until it is wound. Working straight from a hank produces a tangle. The winder makes a center-pull cake; the swift holds the hank open while it does. People buy the first and forget the second.

The sizing trap that catches everyone

Cases and organizers are sold by what they hold, and the numbers matter more than they look:

• Needle cases are sold as up to 11in or up to 14in. Measure your longest straight needle first - a 13in needle in an 11in case sticks out and catches on everything.
• Hook cases are usually sized for slim aluminum hooks. An ergonomic handle at 16 to 17mm diameter will not go into a loop cut for a pencil-thin shaft. Look for a case with both loop widths.
• Winders clamp to tables up to about 1.5 to 1.75in thick. Measure your table. This is the single most common complaint about every winder on the market and it is entirely avoidable.

What we would skip

• A dedicated knitting bag, for most people. A tote you already own plus a small zipped tool case covers it. The exception is a yarn feed slot, which an ordinary bag cannot replicate.
• Hot glue, for anything. It sets rigid and brittle and cracks as knitted fabric flexes. A flexible fabric adhesive is the right category - see best glue for yarn crafts.
• Novelty gadgets. Pom pom makers, yarn bowls and stitch dispensers are pleasant and none of them change a finished object.

Where the money is better spent

For most people, on the tools themselves. A hook or needle set that suits your hands does more for the experience than any accessory - see best crochet hooks and best knitting needles. After that, blocking mats, because they change what your work looks like when it is finished.