Friday 12 October 2007

A nice place to rest


The previously mentioned horrible weather at the weekend (which has continued for most of the week – how much longer can it rain constantly?) meant that I got some crafting done for the first time in ages. I finally got around to making a knitting needle roll for my collection of vintage knitting needles. They once belonged to Esme, my husband’s great-grandmother, and were passed on to me by his grandmother last winter when I started knitting again for the first time in about 15 years. There are about 20 pairs of needles, in a range of sizes, but mostly smaller ones (for knitting baby garments I guess). I really like the fact that these needles have been part of my family for a long time and when I use them I wonder what Esme might have knitted with the same needles years ago. Until last weekend, they had been stored rather unceremoniously in a plastic bag with a rubber band around them, but I finally decided at the weekend to give them a nicer place to rest.

I didn’t really use a pattern for this – I just laid out the needles size by side to get the width and length I needed and then sort of made it up from there (although after I’d finished it, I found a pattern in my Stitch n Bitch book that would have been REALLY helpful – d’oh). The backing is plain denim and the lining and tie fabric is a cotton blend I picked up at the op-shop a few months ago. I wish now that I had embellished the denim a bit more or used a patterned fabric as it looks a bit plain when it’s rolled up, and the green contrast stitching around the edge doesn’t show up as much as I thought it would, but I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out.

1 comment:

Jessicah said...

What a lovely roll and story! I feel the same way about my needles- passed on from both sides of the family- and the fabric I used to make my roll was from a couple of skirts that used to be my Nana's. If you are still wanting to jazz up the outside you could applique some of the lining fabric on maybe?