It's my understanding that regardless of the TSA's "official" list of things that are allowed, it's up to the individual agent and if they happen to be having a bad day, you could lose some of your things and there's not a lot you can do about it. They have the final say.
I do think being polite, even if they're not, can go a long way too.
We fly out to San Francisco every year to see my daughter and her family and I want to take some handwork on the plane this year, so I've been looking into this. One of the things I read was to take finger nail clippers, instead of scissors (I'd be very unhappy if I lost my favorite Kai embroidery scissors.) I think I'm going to print out the list of things that are allowed and take it with me though, just because I don't think it can hurt.