Yarn Gator: never say never

This is Gator. He’s just here to look good. (Kid1’s cat)

This is a Yarn Gator. It was a gift from Twice Sheared Sheep in my VKLive NYC teacher’s bag last January. When I first saw it, I thought I’d never need it.

When I knit stranded colorwork, brioche, or slip stitch knitting, it’s usually just two colors at a time. If the knitting is in the round, they never tangle. The two yarns behave themselves sitting in my project bag.

When I knit brioche or slip stitch flat, I automatically turn the work one direction, then the other. It’s easy to tell which way to turn: the direction where the yarns won’t twist.

My current projects are helix knitting. Jogless stripes, knit in the round. When it’s just jogless garter stitch or two color color stripes, I don’t have a problem.

When I knit this three color helix cowl, I set the yarn balls on the table in front of me, and moved each ball to the end of the line when I finished its section. Easy peasy. But what if I don’t have a table in front of me?

I’m working on this three color helix hat while I finish writing a pattern. I want to knit on the go, and don’t always have a table in front of me.

Enter the Yarn Gator. It clips across my project bag. It can fully open so the yarns can be removed without cutting them. And it keeps my yarn balls in order. When I’m knitting with the first or third yarn, it’s easy to tell which way to turn my work to keep them from tangling. (Somehow the middle yarn is always fine.) Without the gator, it’s hard to tell when I’m twisting my yarns until I have a frustrating tangle.

So I guess this was a good idea after all. Never say never!

If you want a Yarn Gator, you can find it here. This is an affiliate link; if you make a purchase I get a small commission. But I only tell you about products that I find useful!

Are you intrigued by helix knitting/jogless stripes? I’m teaching an in-person class at For Yarn’s Sake on June 20. We’ll cover garter stitch, single row stripes, blending dye lots…all in the round. You can sign up here. You don’t need a yarn gator for class; we’ll use the tabletop method to start you off.