I love everything CocoKnits except for my stitch holders and i think the problem is....me. Or maybe the climate I live in. Maybe some of you will have insights.
I love the concept behind the stitch holders, but man I can't get them to work worth a hooey. Screw the needle on the leather cord bits? No. I could sit there the rest of my life and try to do it, and that leather bit is NOT going into the needle end.
I have two hypotheses.
1) I have autism, and I just don't have the best hand-eye coordination. I am quite clumsy. So i am wondering if this is just another thing, like making keys work, that normal people have no problem with but my autism makes into a physical struggle for me.
2) Maybe it's the climate drying out the cords? The leather cord felts my wool stitches, too. I live in Los Angeles and I am wondering if our climate is just drying out the cord so that they are more abrasive than otherwise, and less willing to go into the needle ends.
I am NOT saying it's not a good product--I love my utensil roll from y'all with a love that is more than love as Byron would say, and I love their point protectors and the book. I'm just stymied here with a product I really wanted to love because I hate me the safety-pin-esque pointy metal stitch holders a lot.
@Lisa Schweitzer Hi Lisa - Oh dear.... So at knit night in the shop after we received the stitch holders, here is what happened...
We have a knitter that has the holders and absolutely LOVES them. I tried to use them and I couldn't get them to work either. So I don't think it is just you.
There was a TRICK. You may need to take a pair of sharp scissors the trim the end of the cord on the diagonal to make I bit of a point. Don't make the taper too long - just enough to get a short point that goes into the hole. Then you can screw the tip on the cord. It only takes a couple of turns to make the cord secure - no need to over do it.
You may need to do this again in the future as the end does become slight wider as you use them, but you have very long cords and you only need to trim a couple of millimeters when you do it.
I don't find that cords felt my wool, but then again, I am not sure I would use these holders on a super fine or soft yarn that would have a tendancy to pill.
You can also use some beeswax on the cord to make it smoother if you want.
Cocoknits has a great video on the cords. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8OTMRpo0E
Hope this helps!
@Lisa Schweitzer Definitely not just you—it took me forever to get them to screw in, and I almost gave up. I finally got them on, but now I don't ever want to take them off to use them with the different-sized cords. Maybe I'll try that trick of snipping the ends. (Thank you, Kim!)
Okaaaaay so I decided to wax the cords....but I am still a no-go on getting the ends to screw. So I just attached the needles to cords with some washi tape that comes right off. I'm done fighting the battle with the cords--the washi tape worked just fine.
Putting the stitches on the cords is sooooooooooooooooo much nicer than having those metal pokey ones jabbing you all the time when you have your project on your lap.
Thanks for all the help!
