Saturday, October 4, 2008

You gotta know where to hold them

I have to start this post with a disclaimer. All the pictures you are about to see are of old things. Things that that been used for over 10-20 years and they show their wear. That said.....

I have seen people on other blogs and in ravelry talk about how to store your knitting supplies. Some people buy bags and cases, some people use a drawer or rubbermaid type item, some people make their own. I fall into the category of all 3.

Below are some of my handmade ones.

This first one is actually used for my hotel supplies. You know - the stuff that you need when you travel, shampoo, etc. But last time I pulled it out I got to thinking the basic idea would work well for a knitting supply case.

It's easy to make. I used material I had dyed and created the base shape but you could make this out of a cloth place mat.





Get 4-8 good zip lock storage bags. Very simply you over lap them across the center of the base.












One open to the left - next to the right - then left - etc. Stitch using a large stitch length about 1 inch either side of the center. Trim off the bottoms of the bags leaving about 1/2" "seam allowance. Sew on a couple ribbons for a closure and there you have it - a knitting supply case.



The next storage case was a pattern in an old woman's magazine. Back in the 70s Woman's Day, Family Circle and all those mags would have large craft sections with knitting, sewing, and other wonderful crafts to make. I miss that... Back to the case. This one was in one of those sections one time and I decided to give it a try. I found a patterned denim, zippers, some clear tablecloth material and went it it.
This case is about the size of a notebook. It has lots of pockets and slots for needles.
With it completely filled with supplies it's very heavy and I actually use it now a days for the supplies I don't use too often.
It has Grandma's old needles, my old crochet hooks, stitch holders, all sorts of goodies and I suddenly find my self in need of and - with this bag I know where to hunt it up.















During this time period I also had really bad taste in felt items. I made a crochet hook case out of yellow and orange. Oddly enough - It's so old the colors are back in style again. Guess I should have kept some of the old clothes and my cousin's kids would be right in style!
















Not shown in these pictures are the other things that I store needles in - an old metal box that some candy came in from Target one Christmas, the coffee mug on the shelf, you know the spots you're knitting supplies end up
Of course, when it's all said and done, where do the needles and supplies always end up? On the table next to my chair. When in doubt, that's the first place I should look for something!











I tried formatting the post for picture to work into the text and - well - I'm not so happy with it. I'll go back to pictures on their own lines next time around. Have a great weekend!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are very creative!!