Things are well in my (organizational) universe again.

Last weekend, I cleaned my knitting space.  I just couldn't take it anymore.

I can now breathe easily again.

I still haven't figured out what to do with my circulars.  I liked the "pencil pouches in a 3-ring binder" idea (I'm a fan of binders, if you couldn't tell from the picture above), but the hunt for pencil pouches at stores just after schools have gone on summer vacation was (unsurprisingly) unsuccessful.  However, it appears Amazon sells them pretty cheaply (i.e. this pack of 24  for $32).  I'm debating on whether I should wait until August for Back to School sales, or buy them now and satisfy my I-need-it-now inner child/OCD.

Still not as pretty as I would like.

For now, the circulars are living in their original small ziplocks, in some semblance of order.

Riffling through my needle bin also made me realize that I have a bunch of bamboo needles that will likely need a new home.  Now that I'm a full-on metal needle lover, I doubt I'll use them much in the future.

Besides organizing the bin mess, I also organized my FO binder.  It's basically Ravelry in written/scrapbook form, in case the apocalypse happens and the internet dies*.  I used the knitting journal pages from Kathryn Ivy to record project info, then stuffed my pattern/notes/yarn band behind it.  I like it a lot, though already I know I'm going to have to get a thicker binder to expand.  The project pages aren't as detailed as my Ravelry, but I tried to include all the most important information (again, in case of catastrophe).

The only thing I'm dissatisfied with (besides the circulars), are what the blazes to do with my yarn scraps.  I know a lot of people are using their sock yarn to knit hexipuffs for the BeekeepersQuilt, but I have no interest.  Does anyone know of a creative storage idea for them?

My current organizational scheme involves large ziplocks.  Classy.

Some may have enough yardage left to actually make another project...I should weigh them all and figure out what I actually have left.  Guess I know what my next organizational project is!

*Because of course I'll care about my FOs when the world ends.

In which my needle bin has exploded.

I'm pretty organized.  I like having things neatly arranged.  So how did my "needles and notions" cube end up looking like this?

Yikes.  Those bags and the bin of KnitPicks Palette samples were also in there.

I'm not really sure how this happened.  I think my needle-buying went out of control somewhere along the line, or (more likely) I just started stuffing things into there without really looking, and now its all kinds of chaos.

I've been pondering how to go about needle organization for the DPNs and circulars currently crammed into that cube (my straights live in a vase on top of the cube containment unit).  I considered one of those nifty circular needle hanging holders, but I just know the cats would be messing with that non-stop and chewing on my cables.  I'm considering the binder and zip pencil pouch approach.  Mainly I just want my cords to be less curled up, and for things to be organized.

Even the top is messy!  For the record, it used to look like this.

I have some work to do.

Needle Needs

For a long time now, I've wanted to buy an interchangeable needle set.  I'm glad I've waited a bit, though, because it has taken awhile to discover my true needle needs.  When I first started knitting, I really liked wood and bamboo needles because they were "stickier" and I was paranoid about dropping stitches (and had a tendency to do so pretty often).  Nowadays, I'm less paranoid because I can fix dropped stitches easily, and it tends to happen less often.  Plus, I also knit fairly tightly, so now I appreciate slick metal needles to move things along with more ease.

Sounds pretty straight-forward, right?  There are a bunch of metal interchangeable needle sets to choose from, all with different specifications.  Luckily, I have discovered that I have other requirements for my needles, which will help narrow things down:

1. The needles need to be fairly pointy, but not TOO pointy.
•  I've been using a Kollage square needle lately, and am finding it TOO pointy.  Addi Lace-type pointy is good.
2. The cable needs to be slick, flexible, and can't have too much memory.
• The Kollage needle is nice and flexible, but not slick enough--my stitches get stuck on it during magic loop.  The Addi cable is slick, but no matter how many times I've done the hot-water-pull-straight trick, it always curls back up on itself and drives me insane.   KnitPicks' cable seems to be more in line of what I like.
3. I would like a variety of sizes (at least down to a size 2 since I use that often, but also up to at least a size 8 or 9).

I've been keeping a spreadsheet of different sets to compare, and so far the top two contenders are the HiyaHiya Sharps, and the ChiaoGoo Twist.

HiyaHiya Sharps

ChiaoGoo Twist

I have pros and con's about each (some sillier than others):

HiyaHiya:
Pros:  Pretty case (it comes in other flavors besides the ones in the pic above); the small set of needles has sizes US 2 through 8; the 4" set can make 16" needles for hats; these get rave reviews all over Ravelry.
Cons: Have to buy each set (small/large) separately [but could be cheaper if I find I really only use the smaller sizes and don't need the larger set]; I have no idea what the cables are like, though reports say its pretty flexible.

ChiaoGoo:
Pros: Nice case with lots of accessories; can purchase a complete set, or just the small/large separately; can buy different cables from the other set (nylon) if red cables are too stiff.
Cons: The red cable might be too stiff for magic loop (I have a fixed circular version to try); if I want to make 16" needles, I would need to buy smaller tips and cables separately.

When it comes down to it, cost might be the biggest thing for me.  For a more fair comparison, the small set of the HiyaHiya costs around $80 (US) and the ChiaoGoo $90 (but you get more accessories).  If I wanted to buy smaller tips/cables to do hats, the HiyaHiya cables run about $6.50, and the needle tips are $10.50; the ChiaoGoo cables are $4.50, and the tips range from $8 to $12.

That actually didn't help me at all, because if I do the math (the small set + US9 tips and US10tips + 2 cables) there's only a $2 difference.  I still can't decide. AHHHHHHHHHH!