The Evil of Drink

I was at a Christmas party a few years ago, and lost my knitting sheath.  I got it back a few days ago, it reminded me of the "evil of drink".

 An old goose wing retrofitted to take

2 mm lace needles.

It is a goose wing knitting sheath. Goose wings are a brilliant design that work very well for all kinds of knitting.  The evil is that if you get up and start dancing, they may fall out of your belt or apron strings and get lost.

In particular, they work very well with shorter needles, and hence are very suited for knitting in tight quarters.

Goose wings work better with apron strings or narrow belts than with wider belts. In fact, almost any kind of a soft belt or sash will hold a goose wing in place if you do not get up and dance. I often use the narrow leather belt on my knitting belt to hold a goose wing knitting sheath:

So, with both a knitting belt and a knitting sheath at the ready, which do I knit with?  Well if I was going to use the leather knitting belt for knitting, I would not bother with the knitting sheath, now would I?  However, the narrow leather belt does a very good job of  holding the goose wing in place.  And, on the other hand, the knitting belt is much kinder to wooden needles.

Admittedly, the short needles used with goose wings require more needle changes than long needles, but goose wings are ever so much more convenient for knitting in an overstuffed chair. And, if you are lounging there, with the telly on, speed is not paramount.  And, if you must knit a fine sock from beginning to end while sitting in the coach section of an airplane, a goose wing is the tool.

I made a bunch of goose wings in the days when most of my knitting was done on US1 needles. Now, I often use finer needles, and I am retrofitting my old goose wings with needle adapters to accept the finer needles.

An old goose wing retrofitted to take 

US000 sock needles.

And with the needle adapters they also accept larger needles.