I love my Handi Tool. I didn’t always but I do now. I use it all the time. I know several ways to fix boo-boos in knitting but I prefer to use my Handi Tool. Its faster, easier, and requires very little brain power. Let me try and talk you into getting one.

I first came across the Susan Bates Silvalune Handi Tool in the hands of another knitting instructor. She loved it. She wanted me to love it. She tried to convince me to get one.

“But I already have a little crochet hook. I have a whole mess of them actually,” I argued.

“This has a point on the opposite end,” she told me.

“I have a whole mess of sticks with pointy ends too. I’m a knitter.”

“But its Handi!” she tried again, giving me a big bright smile.

“Pass,” I told her.

A week later I bought one. (Wipe that grin off your face.) I like to buy crafty notions and accessories and these Handi Tools are dirt cheap. So I bought one just to have it. A week later I bought another. Then I bought a third.

I know.

I didn’t really need the first one and I certainly didn’t need a third. I know that. But they are handy. They are exactly the right size to fit in your hand. The pointy end is perfect for tugging stitches into shape and for grabbing a loose stitch. The hook is a nice size for picking up stitches in most yarn weights. Its feels very natural when I use this tool. But they are little and so I worry about loosing it. Which is why I have a back up Handi Tool. And a back-up for the back-up.

The hook seems equivalent to a US size C (2.75 mm) and the point seems to be a US size 2.5 (3 mm). They retail for less than $2. They come in all sorts of colors. And they can do this.

Did I talk you into it? In addition to fixing your knitting they are:

• good emergency cable needles
• a life saver when you have a really short tail to weave in
• a decent makeshift shawl pin
• helpful with those rubber band looms (or so I’m told)

Knit Picks sells something similar for almost as cheap. Its the Emergency Fix Key Chain. Its a little double ended hook on a key chain.

I’m sure those work just fine and they would be much easier to keep track of, but I prefer the Handi Tool. I like being able to flip from pointy to hooky end.