Warning: Knitting Post…

For non-knitters, this will bore you to tears.

Storing my many circular needles has always been a problem. Needle rolls, while pretty, only do a good job storing straight needles. Keeping circs in their little packages works, but then you have to fumble through them looking for a certain size. So I decided to come up with a design that works for me:

And a close-up:

I made this with a purchased place mat. Finished size is 7 1/4 inches wide, 17 1/2 inches long.

Begin by cutting the placemat into two pieces; first is 5 3/4 inches wide by 17 1/2 inches; the other is 7-1/4 X 17-1/2.  My placemat was tightly woven, so I didn’t even serge or overstitch the edges; it won’t ravel.

Next, cut a piece of plastic 3 inches by 17-1/2 inches (I used the plastic zipper case that a bedspread came in). Cover the two short edges and one long edge with narrow ribbon, or even bias tape; I just used a straight stitch, but zig-zag would work as well. Line up the long ribbon covered edge with the long edge of the larger placemat piece. Straight stitch across the upper and lower edges. Then line up the smaller placemat piece with the opposite edge of the larger piece. I straight stitched side - to -side across, through all layers, in 1 inch increments to form the channels to hold the needles. I made 17 channels. Now you have not only formed the needle channels, but also the pockets in which to place your needle numbers. Print out the needle identification numbers that you wish to use (I used 00 through 15) in a large font, cut them into squares, and place in the pockets. Ta-da!  You may add a hanging loop, or actually fit a clothes hanger at the top; I didn’t want to hang mine; I store it flat.  I did add an extra ribbon loop at the bottom to hold a needle gauge.

If you made it  though this post, as you are not a knitter…you deserve a gold star!

Go well.

This entry was posted on 22. October 2008 at 18:31 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.