My Knitting Bag & My Notions Bag

What do I have to have?  What do I actually have?  Why? How many do I Have?  Why?  The mysteries will be answered, hopefully.

First up the knitting or crocheting project bag.....

Yarn, hooks or needles, pattern.  These are the obvious suspects.  We all have these items with us in our project bag.  But what else might there be?  I have a notions container.  For this I use an old altoids tin or other plastic or metal candy container.  In this I keep a small snips, yarn needle, stitch markers, beads if needed for the project, a row counter, post it notes or a tablet plus a pen.  These all seem to be rather straight forward, I admit.  But there's more.....

I also keep a nail file or emery board, hand lotion, a travel container of antiacids/ibuprofen/cough drop or hard candies, eye drops, lip balm (in winter only or if a long cold) and tissues.  The file or emery board are for both my hands and needles/hooks.  One never knows when a nail or tool will develop a burr that snags yarn or finished fabric.  The lotion does the same for skin.  I can also use lotion on the tools to speed up the process.  The rest is for my comfort.  I suffer from headaches, indigestion, dry mouth and coughs as well as dry eyes.  Tissues come in handy for many things. 

I don't carry chocolates or other meltable items.  They can make a mess.  I never carry a drink unless it's water.  Water doesn't stain.  Wine, beer, tea, coffee, sodas, juices can all stain, especially the natural fibers.  

I never carry my keys in my bag.  I learned the hard way not to do this.  My keyring has a corkscrew which is bad for yarn.  My keyring has jagged sided keys, also bad for yarn.  Some of the rings are a clup type and those catches are bad for yarn.  

I don't allow Velcro in my bags, again this is bad for yarn and finished fabric.  The grippy side causes pulls.  If you have the adhesive type, that can also cause pulls.  When the adhesive comes off the backing, you will have a heck of a time getting it off the yarn.  depending on the yarn constructrion, you will tear out a lot of individual fibers creating thinner yarn.  Just say no to Velcro.  You might want to include zippers too.  They can catch yarn in the teeth.