Circular Knitting Needle Roll

I have made it a goal of mine this year to make myself "Tool Rolls" for all of my knitting and crocheting needles and hooks. 

I started off with the smallest of the rolls, a crochet hook roll.

Then I moved onto a knitting needle roll, a pattern which I might want to revise a little bit in the future so that the flap is more stable, maybe just interfacing the flap. 

Then, I racked my brain for months on how to make the best circular knitting needle holder, and I think I finally found the answer for my perfect circular needle "roll". The problem with circular needles is that 1 pair takes up SO MUCH space, I knew that this roll was going to be huge and eat up a lot of fabric and be pretty big. 

I tried three different patterns and they were all terrible. I wish I kept them but I was so irritated that I just threw them in the garbage. I probably should have taken pictures. One of them involved me buying a grommet-er and did a lot of grommet-ing, and other were even worse failures.

HOWEVER, I think I've finally got it! 

First, after A LOT OF MEASURING AND I MEAN A LOT, way too much math for this accounting during off-work hours, I cut all of the fabric pieces for the roll. 

 
To give you a better idea of the different cuts I took this side shot, most pieces are stacked and have many many layers.

These are the additional supplies that I used for my project. I used a 50 weight mercerized cotton thread, Schmetz MICROTEX needles (which are flipping phenomenal, you need to get them now), and my AMAZING Bernina Binder Attachment. Have you guys used this yet? It is so amazing. Depending on the size attachment you get, it takes a 1.5 inch strip of fabric, and turns it into binding effortlessly. You can make binding strips themselves, or bind and edge of fabric or a quilt. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on that later :)


Some progress shots of me putting the roll together:

I had some MAJOR difficulty with the "Binding" of this little Circular Needle Book. I originally anticipated running the whole center spine through my machine, then once I realized that its like 25 layers of fabric and interfacing I knew there was no way, even with my trusty Bernina. 

To combat that, I used a wicked thick and sharp tapestry needle, purl embroidery floss and a metal thimble, and tried to create binding.  I do admit that this does not look perfect, but I will work on my binding techniques and a few other enhancements when I make this again. For my purposes, it is totally sufficient. I think in the future a leather punch or something that actual book binders use would be more effective than the tapestry needle. 

 Glam Shots:

The Collection so far:

That's another item off the Bucket List, wooohooo! Check out my Finished Projects page as well as my Flickr page for completed projects. 

Hope you enjoyed :)

HOLLER!

{Knitting} Nido VT Shopping & a Herringbone Man Scarf

My loving, caring, generous husband always harasses me for the fact that I never knit him anything, ever. My response is always the same thing, "when we were dating in college I knit you a beer cozy with your school name and in your school colors and you never used it and don't even know where it is" and then he is promptly silenced. He also only says these things in front of people, so I can only assume that the tone of my retort wasn't the most pleasant.

We recently found ourselves in Burlington for Labor Day weekend and I knew that if I was in Burlington I was absolutely-most-definitely-no-doubt-about-it going to the shop Nido right on college street, downtown. I learned of this shop through a giveaway I won many moons ago, and just knew I had to make it there. Ashley from the blog Film in the Fridge raves about Phiona's fabric selection on her blog all the time, and posts some pretty great projects she has done with a lot of the fabrics she buys from Nido, including several projects with handstamped fabrics, which is awesome!

The shop was in a great location right in the heart of downtown Burlington, next to all the shopping and restaurants. I walked into the shop and was very warmly greeted by the worker there, who I later asked "Are you the owner, Phiona, by chance?" and in fact she was, so we quickly struck up conversation about all the different fabrics in her shop and Ashley from Film in the Fridge and lots of other crafty things, and some personal things too like how it was her first day back from work after a 2 weeks off because she got married (veryyy exciting).

I have got to be the most annoying shopper ever. I touch everything. Literally. I have to touch and fondle everything in every store I am ever in. I got yelled at a lot in Paris! I spent about an hour groping all of the beautiful fabrics, yarns, and other goodies and Phiona didn't say boo about it, which was awesome. 

She had some spectacular fabrics that I haven't yet seen in person, like the new Heather Ross line, Nani Iro double gauze, Anna Maria Horner's Rayon Challis, Robert Kaufman's Essex Linens, etc. I totally fell for the Nani Iro prints. I honestly didn't even know what they were or that they existed at all. They are so beautiful and luxurious and subtle at the same time. I grabbed 1 yard of each of these prints and I plan on making some type of cowl or wrap that I can wear at work. I also got a yard of this Scandinavian inspired linen print. I don't know why but that print just screams Christmas to me, so I had to grab some, as I've been eying it for a while now.

Isn't this Nani Iro print unbelievably beautiful? It almost looks alive. I am obsessed with it. It reminds me of a Monet painting, don't you think?

 
My main purpose for the trip was actually for some yarn, not fabric. I mean of course I got both.  She carried wonderful yarns in the store, all from the Northeast. She had some Swan Island Yarn and lots of other brands that I hadn't even heard of. I ended up finding some BEAUTIFUL yarn in gorgeous fall colors and was instantly inspired. Finally all of my husband's nagging got to me. I don't know why really, but I think that I was mostly inspired by the yarn color, a beautiful golden wheaty mustard color with a little bit of green in it and a lot of depth to it. Husband has a dark charcoal winter coat so I think the mustard hue will go nicely. I bought two skeins that are about 300yds per skein and the yarn is probably a 3 weight yarn, not quite worsted 4 but not a fingering weight yarn. What is that, DK weight? I also bought some of the same yarn in a beautiful berry color to make myself a cowl. 

 

I searched the internet and blogosphere for a herringbone scarf pattern that was wide enough and had all of the things I like in a scarf, like a nice border to finish the scarf off on the sides and prevent curling. I didn't find everything I was looking for, but I found the general pattern for the herringbone section and then just did a quick gauge to see how many stitches I needed to cast on in order to get my desired width. Like I said, the yarn is DK weight, so I used a set of size 7 circular needles (my fav) and cast on 71 stitches, with a 3 stitch border on each side, so 6 of those stitches are for the borders only.

I haven't worked so diligently on a knitting project in a while! This scarf is taking me FOREVER. I think I probably should have upped my needle size by one or two so the yarn went a little farther and the scarf didn't take as long, but I know that I will be happy with the final product, and hubby better be too! His birthday is on Halloween (I know!!) and hopefully I will have the scarf done by then! UPDATE: Currently I am through 1 of the 2 skeins of this fantastic yarn and the scarf is about 48 inches long and I've been knitting it for about a month now! I will probably just knit through both skeins, or ask hubbs how long he wants it (as if he even knows what he wants).

As for my cowl, I am not sure what I want the cowl to look like. I will definitely be increasing my needle size to either an 8, 9, or 10. I will have to whip up some test pieces in the pattern I choose, I want it a little looser than my hubbs scarf. Maybe I will make a Purl Soho Herringbone inspired cowl to match hubbs? I was also eying this Hamanasu cowl from Quince & Co.. Or I could make the ever popular honey cowl that everyone is raving about.  Who knows? It is probably going to take me another month to finish this one so my cowl might be a tax season project. 

What has inspired your projects lately? A specific fabric or yarn? A picture? Pinterest, lol?

HOLLER

{From Scratch Club Guest Post} Crocheted Face Cloths

Those of you following this blog for a while may know that I am a blog contributor over at the amazing and wonderful From Scratch Club blog on a monthly basis. 

Here is a little excerpt from FSC's about page to give you some insight into what the FSC is all about:

"WE ARE {MAKING} FOOD MATTER, TOGETHER

We live within the Capital Region of New York State (Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Saratoga Springs) striving for a sustained connection to our kitchens, our gardens and our communities by inspiring people to jump back into the kitchen, their gardens and food communities as a daily way of life regardless of income, space & time. We host community food swaps, a podcast on iTunes, virtual food-focused book club on Goodreads and lastly, we teach DIY classes around the area. The rest of the month we are here, on the blog, sharing stories, recipes, DIY projects, homesteading tutorials, kitchen tips & tricks and food policy news."

I have been dubbed the FSC Crafter and on a monthly basis I post a crafting project for all of the FSC members and readers to recreate. I try to maintain a utilitarian focus when it comes to the craft projects that I choose to write about, as the men and women of the FSC really like to get stuff done!

My post for September was instructions for your very own set of Crocheted Face Cloths!

My past posts have included:

• Thrifted Silverware Garden Markers
• A Mug Rug
• Embroidered Jar Lids

I hope you check out my posts over at the FSC Blog and also take a look at the recipes and projects blogged about by other FSC Contributors. The website is a wealth of knowledge! 

HOLLER!