Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hanging Circular Knitting Needle Holder - a tutorial

I have a lovely knitting needle carrier. It's one of those roll-up types and it's great for when I'm on the go, but I rarely need to take all my needles with me and then there's the problem of my circular needles. I try to wind them up in such a way so that they won't get kinked or tangled but it never works out very well and they're just a mess.

I wanted something that I could use at home to keep my circular needles from becoming a tangled mess, and to keep my other needles within easy reach. Where to go for inspiration? Google of course and I saw some great projects and tutorials. Some of them involved binders and plastic pencil cases which looked nifty but still involved folding up the needles. Then I stumbled upon this one made from the leg of an old pair of jeans and this one made from a tie.

They're both brilliant ideas and great upcycling but I wanted mine to look a little prettier so I used some cotton prints that I had just picked up at the fabric store, and came up with this:

Here's how I made it.

Supplies:

2 fat quarters of coordinating fabric

fusible interfacing (optional but recommended for lightweight fabrics)

general sewing supplies


You'll need two pieces of fabric 8" by 19". I used different fabric on the front and back of mine to make it reversible but you could certainly use the same fabric on each side if you prefer.

Two pieces of fusible interfacing 8" by 19". If you're using a heavier fabric such as Home Decorator fabric or denim you might not need the interfacing.

Cut two pieces of fabric, 9" by 2" for the handle.

Iron the interfacing to the wrong sides of your fabric.

Fold over and press a 1/4 seam on both long edges of each large fabric piece. Sew along this seam.


For the handles, place right sides together and sew the long edges with 1/4" seam allowance. Turn right side out forming a tube. Press and stitch again along the long sides.

Place the handle on the right side of one of the large pieces of fabric, as seen below. Lay the other piece of fabric right side down on top of this; sandwiching the handle in between the two larger pieces of fabric.


Sew along the top and bottom seams. You now have a large fabric circle. Turn it right sides out and press the seams.


Top stitch along the top and bottom seams. Mark lines approximately every inch from the top to the bottm seam. These will create the "pockets" for the knitting needles.


Stitch along the lines, load up with knitting needles and you're good to go!

This is just a basic design and could be altered and improved upon anyway you see fit. Add numbers on the pockets to identify your needles sizes, make it larger or smaller, whatever works best. It would make a great gift for the knitter on your gift giving list too.

As always if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments or shoot me an email at pinandpaper@q.com.





Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Useless Personal tidbit

I once bought 5 yards of brown fun fur to make some stuffed animals for an upcoming craft sale and as I was getting it cut the gal looked at me and said, “What are you going to make?”

I was so tempted to say, “curtains” or possibly “Fifty furry bikini panties. Oh yeah baby!”

But I didn’t.

These are the types of things I regret.