A Double Pointed Needled Roll

If you've checked this blog in the past year, you'll know that the main crafts I have been making have all been themed around getting organized! 



In April of last year, I sewed up a Knitting Needle Roll that fit 2-4 pairs each of all possible sized straight knitting needles.  I also made a matching Crochet Hook Roll (that I don't think I had a chance to blog about here), Circular Knitting Needle Roll, and I finally had some free time to sew one of the final pieces of this getting organized puzzle, a Double Pointed Needle Roll.

These tool rolls were a little more difficult than I anticipate. They involved a lot of pattern testing with scrap fabrics and A LOT of measuring to find the right size and shape to accommodate each type of needle. When I first started this project, it was just a simple straight needle roll and crochet hook roll. I had totally forgotten about the other types of needles and tools that go along with yarn crafts. You know what that means right? I DEFINITELY didn't buy enough fabric to coordinate all of the rolls. Naturally, I couldn't locate the fabric ANYWHERE, once I realized that I needed more it was too late to find any. I have been rationing that red sketchbook floral print like you wouldn't believe, so that I could try and incorporate it into each of the rolls and then still hoarding some for the final yarn-craft-organizing-related-project, a notions bag. 

This double pointed needle roll is designed to hold very size DPN from 0-13. Additionally it will hold 2 pairs of each size, one space for the shorter, 5-7 inch length, as well as each the larger 9-12 inch length. The roll was sewed up in a slubby black and white linen, and a lightweight cotton fabric in a pretty red sketchbook floral print. Because I was running out of this fabric from all of my other projects, I did have to do some piecing to make it work. The outer cover ties were made with raspberry red linen scraps, and I had to piece the top binding edge for each pocket. Roughly, the roll measures 12.5 inches tall x 25 inches wide when completely open.

 

That's another finished project off of My Bucket List! Check out My Bucket List for all of the projects I want to complete, and check out My Finished Projects for everything I've completed so far (including lots of food!). Also, check out My Flickr Page for another summary of my finished projects!

{Knitting} A Manly Herringbone Scarf

I just finished this Manly Herringbone Scarf I started in October for my Hubby. I haven't finished a knitted project in A WHILE, so this one felt really great to finish. 

The yarn I used is Dirty Water Dye Works "Edna" yarn in a great mustardy yellow color. I bought the yarn on a trip to Burlington, Vermont in September at a shop called Nido.

The needle size recommended by the yarn label was a size 5-7, but I wanted a super thick and warm scarf, so I used a size 4 (circular needles). I went through almost 2 skeins of this yarn, at 380 yards be skein! NO WONDER IT TOOK SO LONG! 

The scarf is about 14x70 inches and it looks GREAT on my Hubby with his dark charcoal wool coat. Considering it took me almost 2 months of seemingly constant knitting, if he loses this thing I am definitely going to make him suffer!

Then, because my husband wouldn't pose for the camera, I attempted a shameful selfie. I know it is a sad attempt and I apologize for subjecting you to it. Also, my forehead isn't 300 shades darker than the rest of my face. I promise. 

That's another finished project off of My Bucket List! Check out My Bucket List for all of the projects I want to complete, and check out My Finished Projects for everything I've completed so far (including lots of food!). Also, check out My Flickr Page for another summary of my finished projects!


Thanks for checking in! 

HOLLER!

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

Knitting Needle Roll

Last week I did some more sewing for myself! To compliment my crochet hook roll, I made a knitting needle roll out of the same fabrics, a black and white linen and sketchbook-ish raspberry red floral print.

 

I wanted this roll to fit all sizes of knitting needles up to a 17, and in both the shorter  9/10 inch height and the taller 16 inch needle height. I also wanted the top flap to completely cover all of the needles, so that none of them slip out if I am carrying the needle roll around in a bag.

Don't they make quite the pair? Now onto a Double-pointed Needle Roll and a Circular Needle Roll!

Check out my Flickr page and Finished Projects page for all of the project I've knocked off My Bucket List.

HOLLER!

{Christmas Crafting} Knitting Needle Roll

I have grand plans to make the perfect knitting needle / crochet hook rolls for Christmas presents. 

I've made a few different rolls in the past, trying out different patterns/methods each time and I just have not been satisfied. The construction was too juvenile looking, or just poor in general. 

A lot of them just didn't have enough space either.  I wanted the knitting needle roll to fit all normal sizes of of my straight needles, in both the 9-10inch and 13-14inch sizes. 

After MUCH measuring and re-measuring, and looking at various styles/designs of rolls online, I finally narrowed down the size and shape of the knitting needle roll. It did take a little bit of time to cut out all of the pieces, too. I chose my new obsession linen for the main fabric, and then the really pretty blue-ish fabric for the accent.

I designed the pattern so that I could use my AMAZING BINDER ATTACHMENT as much as possible. It is seriously amazing. GET ONE. 
 

I was actually REALLY proud of myself for  thinking through this entire pattern before I jumped in. I looked at the construction of others online in order to get the order of operations down. 

One way that my pattern differs from any that I've tried, is that I added a flap to one side that really makes it a lot nicer to roll up and tie.

Here are a few pics of the finished roll. I am totally obsessed with it. I absolutely love the pattern and I think it turned out amazing. Boasting much??

I gifted it to girlfriend of mine last night at a Christmas party, and she loved it! Of course, not before I had the chance to fill it with my knitting needles. I will definitely be making one for myself. I have every intention of making a roll for Straight Needles, Circular Needles, Double Pointed Needles, and Crochet Hooks. Those will each require different shaped and sized rolls, but now I have my strategy down and can easily alter the pattern. I am so excited!

How much would you pay for something  like this? I would love to make them and sell them and would totally love your input. Thankssss.

HOLLER & MERRY CHRISTMAS!