Knitting Needles: Straight vs Circular

If you're an avid knitter like me, I'm sure you have a knitting needle preference.... I know I do! There are so many types to choose from (plastic, metal, bamboo), different lengths and colors, and of course straight needles and circular needles.

As a kid I chose my first set of knitting needles based on color. They have to be pretty, right? I look at that pair and wonder what I was thinking. While the pink color is pretty, they were much longer than what I needed as a child. I had no idea about different sizes and lengths. I'm sure I looked pretty funny at 8 years old trying to knit with 13 inch needles.

Now that I have started to knit as an adult. I have come to realize that I prefer bamboo needles over plastic or metal and straight over circular and double pointed. I'm not a huge fan of the way the metal needles feel cold in my hands or the clinking noise they make as I knit. While the plastic just seems cheap to me. There is something about my bamboo needles that I just love! I still prefer straight over circular but I'm coming to love my set of circular bamboo needles. The circular needles are great for knitting on the go because I don't have to worry about dropping a needle and it rolling around in the car... when I turn my work the circular needle is hanging around for me.While the double pointed needles just scare me. I own a set of double pointed needles but have yet to use them. I'm sure the reason they scare me is because I haven't used them yet. Note to self: find a new pattern to use double pointed needles! Having said all of that though, I do own a wide variety of knitting needles, plastic, metal, bamboo, straight, double pointed, and circular. To me the material the needles are made of is a matter of personal preference.

Lately I tend to use my circular needles the most because I bought a set so I have just about any size needle I'll need in there. The straight needles work well for just about any project, while the circular needles are great for larger projects. There are certain projects that require a certain type of needle, such as socks.

What project is on your needles now and what type of needles do you prefer? I would love to hear from you!

Plastic: I couldn't resist adding these big purple to my collection.
Nothing beats getting a good sale!

Metal: These are my original needles!

Bamboo: My favorite!
The pair in the center are my first bamboo pair of needles and sadly one of them has warped.

Circular: Great for cowls and other large projects.
Works great for baby blankets!

My set of circular needles.
All but one, which I'm using at the moment with my current project.

Double Pointed

My knitting needle collection plus my knitting fork (you can find my tutorial for the knitting fork/lucet here) in their new storage jar.

Happy Crafting!

Painted Jars/Vases

Happy New Year everyone! One of my New Year's resolutions for this year is to get organized. I spent the last part of 2013 helping my parents clean out their garage and taking all of my stuff that they've been storing for me for the last few years. In there I found some wonderful memories as well as some not so wonderful ones. It was great to go through everything and figure out what I want to keep and what I'm willing to get rid of.

All of that has inspired me to clean and organize my own house... my craft room is the first room on my list. While my craft room is functional it got messy during the knitting of Christmas scarves. Now that my huge project is done I want my craft room to be super organized... especially since I have new crafting supplies to add in there.

Of course I don't do anything without a little pizzazz! So to start my craft room organization I decorated some matching jars for my knitting needles and crochet hooks. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while now but hadn't gotten around to do yet. 

I love the matching jars! It is totally coincidence that I have them... I got the big one from my dad and the smaller one from my good friend Tamara. I'm totally sentimental so these jars will always remind me of them :)

I found my inspirations here. The blog my inspiration came from is in a different language but has a picture tutorial. So I squirted my paint in and tried swirling it around...

But I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I was hoping to get some paint drops running down the sides. So I watered down the paint a bit.

I wanted a little extra pizzazz for my bigger jar and added a black dot border.

The end result is some beautiful unique storage for my craft room.
I can't wait for them to dry so I can start using them!

Happy Crafting!