When you complete your garment, and have put together...run a length of the yarn, up each side of the inside seams. This will mean that this "extra" will get washed at the same time as the garment and therefore will be the same color. Then if you need it for repair you have it.

I suggest you always keep a "diary" of your knitting projects. Take a picture. Write on a sheet of paper, a 3 x 5"..whatever your choice... the needle size, the yarn used, any problems, a copy of the pattern. Then when someone loves it and you need to repeat the project, all information is at your fingertips. I also always put in a label with the care and washing instructions.

Needles are always all over the place. Particularly those of us with multiple projects going. Rather than to be fastidious about returning the needles to their proper cases each and every time...I put all of the not being used needles into a popcorn can (those big jobbers you get at Christmas time) and then once a week, I return them to their cases.

For buttonhole bindings, when the yarn is too heavy: You can either split out a ply or two for this or head to the DMC floss drawers, and match. With 1200 colors you can't go wrong.
For repairs in your sweaters: Use the invisible thread and you can rebuild what is broken or torn. Not easy to work with but it surely is effective. On older garments, afghans or the like. Where you can feel them getting dry and brittle. Use hair rinse in the rinse water or if it is seriously dry, dump in some glycerin which you can get at the local pharmacy.

Use your yarn to "sew" on your buttonholes. Loop it in there, cross it over, and tie it on the back. Big time saver and it looks great!
When stringing beads for a project use a dental floss threader (available at drugstores). Put yarn through the loop. The tip of the threader is firm enough and small enough to string any size bead.

We are coming up upon the season where we knit for others and as such...we find they have a tendency to "lose" the wrappers which have washing instructions. Why not try writing out the washing/drying instructions on a piece of interfacing with a permanent mark. then sandwich this interfacing between two sheets of fusible interfacing and sew it inside the sweater somewhere. I do wash the label a couple of times to make sure it does not run.

For binding off at the neck: Increase your needle size by three sizes and bind off tightly. The tight binding makes the gauge more even, and the bigger needles keeps the neck size loose enough to fit.

For garments that have a predisposition to stretching (cottons, silks, etc.), use a needle for the ribbing that is three sizes smaller than the body needle. When casting on a large number of stitches, especially on circular needles, slip on a counter ringer every ten or twenty stitches. It will help when you count for the total as you can count by tens, or twenties instead of every blessed stitch over and over. And! All you have to do is remove them when they are no longer needed on the next round.

Some Terms.....PLY
Let's clear up a term that seems to confuse many knitters-PLY! It cannot be said often enough that it isn't the number of plies that determines the size or weight of the yarn: a lot of baby yarns are three ply and a lot of bulks are two ply. What is PLY?
A ply is a single strand of spun yarn. It can be twisted tightly or loosely. Yarn is made up of varying numbers or amounts of plies. These are usually twisted in the opposite direction of the individual strands to correct its natural tendency to slant as it is worked. This is also called biasing.

Weight
When discussing yarns, it is more precise to refer to weight rather than ply. Weight indicates the thickness of a yarn, while the number of plies tells only how many strands are twisted together and does NOT indicate the thickness.
The usual yarn weights, and the ones you will hear most often are: Fingering, Sport, Worsted, Bulky and Extra Bulky or Chunky.
Fingering weight many times is called "baby yarn" or sock yarn
the DK weight It usually is a sport weight, but, slightly "above" sport and slightly below worsted.
For you old timers, we had one called afghan weight that is like many of the current DKs.
It is most interesting to compare the yarns, supposedly of the same size. One can be super soft, because of how the plies were all twisted together, where another may be much firmer, and almost stiff.
Novelty yarns come about from the plying of many different types of yarn to make one yarn. Boucle comes about by allowing one of the plies to form loops around one of the plies, and the third one may hold it all together.
Try new yarns. The tactile experience is a wonderful one, and will open new horizons for you.

Double Knitting.... The term "double knitting" is a little confusing for most knitters. There are at least three uses of the term, and each one means something different
Double knitting is a British term for a yarn usually knitted at a gauge of 6st/8 rows to an inch on #4 needles-roughly a sport weight yarn
Double knitting can also refer to a knitting technique that makes a tubular fabric on two needles. An excellent book on this technique is Beverly Royce's "NOTES ON DOUBLE KNITTING" published by Schoolhouse Press.
A third type of double knitting is done in two colors, and a patterned design. It makes a double sided, or reversible fabric.

 Knitting Backwards

Perfect Buttonhole

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