These are all kinds of things I found useful in my knitting and crochet journey so far and want to have in one place, because searching for them sometimes makes me leave a project in timeout for too long.

(This list will of course never be finished - it will be continually updated, but I didn´t want it to show up in my wips.)

Hint: When you print this website as a PDF via the printer menu in your browser, all the links stay active links in the printed PDF afterwards

Knitting

Cast Ons and Bind Offs

My go-to stretchy cast on, because it always springs back nicely:
Jeny’s Stretchy Slipknot Cast-On - the Elastigirl of Cast Ons! I really love it! It is a little fiddly at first, but it is sooo squishy and elastic!
Provisional Cast On with waste yarn & crochet hook
Provisional Cast On with buildt in lifeline
Chinese Waitress Cast On with a crochet hook
Tubular (Italian) Cast On in the round 1x1 rib - without waste yarn (used to be my favorite cast on because it looks so professional, but it doesn’t spring back nicely and is therefore unsuited for hats and mittens etc)
Tubular Cast On 1x1 and 2x2 rib
Tubular Cast On 2x2 rib jogless in the round
Judy Becker’s Magic Cast On (good for toe up socks)
Two Colour Long Tail Cast On for Double Knitting
How to control the slack in backwards loop cast on

Lori’s Twisted Bindoff (stretchy but without a flare)
iCord Bindoff in the round by Bronwyn the Brave (better than the one Kate Davies describes) - it also shows how to graft the ends together!
iCord Bind Off
Tubular Bindoff in the round (matches the Tubular Cast On of course)

Formula for estimating the length of the tail for long tail cast on
___ stitches x ___mm needle / 8 = ___” minimum + 4” = _____” total needed for tail

Or the easy way:
One underarm´s lengh (from Index finger & thumb to elbow) of 4ply jumper weight Shetland yarn (which is fingering or sports weight) is 30 stitches.

Stitch and round counts for hats
Head circumference of 56 cm, fingering yarn:
Ribbing (2 mm needles) 128 sts, 14 rounds + 1 inc round
Beret: Increase to 192 sts, change to 2.75 mm needles, knit 42 rounds stockinette, then decrease 8x2sts every other round for 20 rounds = 62 rounds total without ribbing

(Shetland: 3mm needles, 136 sts, 10 rounds + 1 inc round
Increase to 144 sts, then change to 3,25 mm needles), knit 43 rounds stockinette, then decrease 8x2sts every other round for 19 rounds = 62 rounds total without ribbing)

Head circumference of 54 cm, fingering yarn (superwash):
Ribbing: 114 sts (2,5 mm needles)
3,25 mm needles for stockinette, 50 rounds without decreasing, then decreasing every other round
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Techniques

K2tog leans right //
SSK leans left \\
Tidy SSKs

M1R leans right //
M1L leans left \\
how to make M1R and M1L
To memorize how to start the M1R and M1L you can remember:
m1R = “I’ll be RIGHT BACK”
m1L = “I LEFT the FRONT door open.”
M1L is the default stitch when patterns don’t specify.

Increase from Hazel Tindall:
Lift up horizontal strand between stitches with right needle from back to front
lift over with left needle
knit through back loop
(that´s a M1L then)

Invisible increase in garter stitch

Knitting backwards (good for applied borders in haps)

Weaving in ends as you go

Fair Isle and how to trap the floats
Stranded knitting - positioning the yarns (= yarn dominance)
Increasing within a colourwork chart
Decreases in colourwork and Decreasing in a charted pattern
Colourwork crown decreases
Colourwork increases and decreases

Ladderback Jacquard:
Excellent video by Suzanne Bryan about how it’s done
I establish the LBJ ladders by a yarnover in the setup row. Don’t forget stitch marker before the ladder stitch!
Then in the following round I bring both yarns forward and purl in the back loop (this makes a twisted knit stitch on the back, which looks neater than a simple knit stitch).
Ends with ssk (then the main colour hides the colour of the LBJ stitch).
Take care not to twist the yarns when bringing both yarns forward, otherwise you get colour blips on the front because the ladder stitches are not running freely but are attached to the front!
More knowledge about LBJ in this thread.

Intarsia cables worked flat
Intarsia in the round

1 into 5 increase (Lucy Hague likes to use this increase for her viking cables)

German Short Rows in slomo

Incorporating thrums in your knitting

Braided Join (good for unplied yarns)

Yarnovers for different situations

How to perform a very smooth left twist

Glatt rechts - kein Ärger mit dem Rollrand (German only)

Jogless stripes
Jogless stripes

Picking up stitches along a vertical selvedge
Picking up stitches along a finished edge
3 ways for picking up stitches along a garter edge
Picking up stitches from a provisional cast on (a provisional cast on with waste yarn, that is)
Picking up stitches along a curved edge by Suzanne Bryan

Knitting backwards (helpful for applied borders for Shetland haps for example)
Applied border / how to attach

Picking up stitches for mitten thumbs / preventing holes with “ditch stitches”
Along with Kelley’s mitten class, which is very good
There is also a Kelley’s Sock Class
How to make socks last
Knitting the “upper hand” for a glove / an anatomically correct glove, watch video from 25:44 (beginning the fingers of the “upper hand” = ring finger, middle finger, index finger) later than the pinkie)

Vikkel braid - joining seamlessly in the round

Carrying yarn in circular knitting

Slip-stitch edges for Double Knitting
Tidy slipped edges in Double Knitting the easy way
Double Knitting - when you don´t want one side to mirror the other (for example for letters which won’t be mirrored on the back, but read just fine)
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Fixing

Cutting your knitting horizontally
Grafting your knitting
(I used both techniques to shorten finished sleeves on the Dude sweater successfully)

Laddering down an edge

Cable crossings - how to identify
Cables - keeping track of your rows

How to fix a hat that is too loose

Sock repair: Knitted Patch
Sock repair: Duplicate stitch
Repairing with a darning loom

How to modify sleeves for a better arm mobility (it’s a video about sewing but the same principles apply)
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Finishing

How to tidy up that bindoff

Grafting
Grafting without “ears”
Grafting underarm stitches with no holes

Picking up stitches along a curved edge

icord bindoff in the round

Single crochet border

How to seam on garter stitch

Weaving in cotton ends

Installing a zipper in your knitting

Lining mittens with fleece
Fleecefutter für eine Mütze nähen (only in German)
For my son´s mohawk hat, on the top I made 5 cuts every 9,5 cm and used the top of a flat iron to get the right curve for the tip of the hat.

Overcast stitch: Best way to attach lining fabric to knitting

Reinforcing a steek with crochet
Needle felted steeks
Article about needle felted steeks
Steek sandwich
Finishing a steek
Sewing a ribbon over a steek with fell stitch

Sewing knitting with a machine (to secure a steek for example):
Got the very valuable tip to put newspaper under the to-be-sewn fabric, in order to be able to secure the steek with my sewing machine. This way, the machine can transport the fabric easier (it is however imperative to pin the newspaper to the fabric, otherwise the sewn fabric will be in ripples!!!). This way the machine doesn´t push the fabric down the hole of the thread beneath. It´s common practice for jacquard fabric, which knitting is, of course, too.
You sew with zigzag stitches then. From what I´ve seen, Sidsel Hoivik, the Norwegian colourwork queen, sews over the same line a few times, and I suspect (it looked like that), with different stitch lengths to make it extra secure.

Blocking individual squares on a small cutting board with nails in it plus wooden skewers. The ravelry user afterwards put the boards on the radiator in the evening and had dry patches in the mornings.
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Other

Moth prevention I by user CathyWeeks
To prevent this from getting deleted if the user should ever leave ravelry:

I’ve done a lot of research, and (edit: there seems to be agreement among the sources I looked at that) 120F for 30 mins kills all lifecycles. If you have a stationary shoe rack for your dryer, lay the yarn out on that, and set the dryer to hot for 40 mins or so. My dryer gets to 147F within 5 minutes. It’s also dry, another condition that the bugs can’t tolerate. Take it out of the dryer and enclose in a ziplock with a desiccant packet.

Moth prevention II by user LDKnits

I treat all new purchases with heat- regardless of where purchased. My oven is pretty consistent in its warm temperature. I put all yarn and fiber in for 90 minutes, then let cool to room temp in the oven. Freezing doesn’t kill eggs, so you have to wait for them to hatch and freeze again.

Moth prevention III by user ngairie, a book and paper conservator

Hi there, slightly late to the party but as a Book and Paper conservator I have some professional experience with the problems of insects. Freezing is a good option and should kill the eggs if you can get the temperature down quickly enough and leave it there for a week or so - you’re aiming for about -20 degrees Celsius. Put each item in a sealed plastic bag to avoid escape and leave it in the bag to thaw at room temp for a day or so. As long as the temp gets quickly down to the lower level, it shouldn’t be necessary to repeat the freezing process. Sadly the best defense is good house keeping. Storing in sealed plastic and regular cleaning of storage areas - the insects love warm dark undisturbed areas in which to reproduce, so pulling things out and cleaning regularly means they won’t have anywhere to hide. Heat would also work and surprisingly, it doesn’t need to get excessively hot to be effective - I think it’s only about 50 degrees Celsius but personally I would go for freezing rather than heating. Exactly right about eggs hibernating and hatching when conditions become more favourable for survival. I’m afraid cleaning regularly is best, as it also means you spot anything early. Certain smells may deter like the lavender or tea tree oil, but generally non-hazardous deterrents are about as effective as standing on one leg at sunrise, and it all comes back to cleaning!

Moth prevention IV (website with detailed instructions about what to do if you have a moth infestation)

schnelle Maschenprobe (only in German)

Beating out slack in a skein before winding into a cake:
Put both hands into the opened skein, move the hands quickly outward a few times and repeat while rotating the skein
this will prevent loose threads to coddle up when winding the cake

Yoke decreases part I
Yoke decreases part II

Drops Design Glossary Translator

Standard Yarn Weight System
Englische Garnstärken umrechnen (only in German)
Math for knitters - knitting with yarn held double
2x lace = fingering
2x light fingering = sport
2x fingering = dk
2x sport = worsted
2x dk = bulky
2x worsted = super bulky
Yarn sub - yarn substitiution made easy (a website which gives you alternatives to yarn you enter in the search field)

Stitch ratio and gauge (article “Thinking beyond the pattern” in knitty)

Standard body measurements / body sizing
How to choose a size
Create your own custom knitting pattern online

Top down raglan construction - Carol Feller
Raglanvonoben - how to, only in German
Raglan Rechner (only in German)
Raglan calculator (in English)

Simple hat calculator
Mützen stricken für Anfänger - alle Infos (only in German)

Random stripe generator I
Random stripe generator II

Wollfeste im Überblick (only in German)

Colour inspiration
Adobe colour wheel
colr.org (lets you pick a color palette from a picture)
paletton.com
tineye.com
I think the Adobe one is the most powerful, because there you can also state if you want it monochromatic, complementary, split complementary and many others, you can adjust the brightness with the handles at the bottom, or just browse through combinations others have created.
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Crochet / amigurumi

Magic ring
Changing colour in crochet
Jogless rounds for amigurumi (circles as real circles not spirals, however - with a spine though)
Invisible finish in the round
Ultimate finish for amigurumi
Seamless join of body parts
How to crochet hands
Amigurumi faces: Secure stitching
How to install safety eyes
Soft shaping / amigurumi face shaping
How to attach hair without a knot at the base
Preventing wobbly head in amigurumi (make “third arm” 2-3 sts smaller in the round than the neck)

Videos I used for the designing of Fuchur’s dragon legs:
How to make the dragon arms by Sharon Ojala (from minute 8 on)
Dragón bebé amigurumi - crochet by Patrigurumis, (from minute 28, where she explains the arms)

How to make crochet baskets sturdy