If you don't have thick knitting needles, a pair of chopsticks or wooden dowels will do just as well. Just sharpen the tips in a pencil sharpener and smooth them off with an emery board or abrasive paper.
Similarly, you can renew the blunted tips of wooden knitting needles with a pencil sharpener or by rubbing them with fine abrasive paper or an emery board.
If you don't have a stitch holder, use a long twist tie instead.
To keep a ball of wool from rolling about while you work, put it in a clean tin with a plastic lid; poke a hole in the lid, smooth any rough edges and draw the wool through.
For row markers, attach the little plastic tabs used to close wrapped bread or use twist ties, firmly secured.
Instead of wool, knit or crochet with a strip of fabric cut from an old T-shirt. Starting at the hem, cut the T-shirt horizontally into a continuous 1in/25mm wide strip. Tug on the strip and the cut edges will curl under neatly.
