The Ink-Pot and the Palette

You've reminded me of another prong in my multi-pronged attack on Mediocre Knitting: the right tools. God knows why I was so resistant to them, but I was. I've embraced charts (long way to go yet before I really understand how they work); I use County (Android row-counting app) religiously where row-count matters--because I seriously used to just wing it, and then get frustrated with my own mistakes. Lame lame lame.

I have a good needle gauge, a tape measure and a calculator in my kit. I have proper cable needles and a cute little wooden hook for that laddering-repair trick. I haven't used a lifeline yet, but when lace gets on my agenda in 2013, I will! I'm so impressed that you could identify and fix a lace mistake.

Evernote is probably my most powerful tool: I photograph stuff with my phone and send it directly to an Evernote, where I then write down measurements, mistakes, corrections, ideas--everything. It's the best tool ever!

Tools I still need are a big blocking surface and blocking pins. Probably some other things, too.

Anyway, I've embraced all the aids, tools, helpers and tricks I can get my hands on, and that's really speeding up my progress.

Oh, and have you seen this chart-generator? Pretty neat.