You may have thought I was finished with my knitting needle holders, but that’s just not the case.

I often find myself buying fabric with no project in mind.  It's so common for fabric to be stunningly gorgeous that it's hard to keep myself restrained all the time.

I think that is one of the greatest things about quilting and sewing.  I can take these magnificent works of art, and let them speak for themselves.  I have been known to go out of my way just to showcase a fabric I found to be particularly splendid.

So here's my advice for any crafter: buy the things that sing to your soul.

In the knitting world, we often jest about yarn or fiber "talking" to us, but it's true that sometimes there are certain crafty things that just feel like they belong with us.  It's almost cathartic to take that perfect thing home, even if it doesn't know what it wants to be yet, because one day you will both know and you will be happy you didn't walk away.

I can hear people chanting “enabler” now, and I'm proud of it.  

Life is busy, the world is chaotic, and it's a miracle that any of us can catch our breath.  Do something for you.  Do something that makes you happy and involves goodness and kindness.  I have am often a culprit of forgetting to invest in myself and, as a creator, few things will lift my spirits like giving myself the material to keep doing what I love.   

This all together took about 2 yards of fabric and a rainy afternoon to make; that's around $20 and a relaxing Saturday to create something that will let me enjoy storing my double point needles for the foreseeable future.

Obviously some of us can be tight on finances, and $20 of material in one go might not really be an option -- and that's okay.  Crafting is an expensive pursuit and costs us either time, money, or both.

All I can suggest is to put a jar out for spare change to do something you love, maybe while you're waiting in line at the grocery store you can pull a pair of needles out of your bag and get a few stitches, and ultimately take time for you.  Winter, whether you celebrate holidays or not, can be an exceedingly busy time and it's good to remember through the whirlwind of it all that you matter, and you deserve time for you.

Want to see a step by step tutorial of how I make these needle cases?  It’s right here.  

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.

Last week's blog post went over the steps of how I made the needle case for my single point needles.  This week I made another case for my circular needles, but I thought it would be boring if I talked about the same thing back to back for my posts, so instead I'm going to show pictures and talk about teaching.  Because as crafters, we often come across the woes and joys of teaching other people new things.  

For the last few weeks I've been teaching Kindergarten-5th grade kids about life on a farm on an actual farm.  The program I'm a part of teaches kids, including kids who are food-insecure, where vegetables and fruit come from.  I teach the soil module, and it's all sorts of lovely now that I actually know how to teach children and have come to terms with the fact that kids will simply enjoy playing in dirt.

Knitting everywhere I go lands me with a lot of questions and interest.  From strangers to friends, people constantly ask me what I’m doing and what I’m making.  Most recently my knitting caught the eye of one classmates.  He had asked me several times throughout the term if I would be willing to teach him, and each time I told him I gladly would.  It made me happy that I live somewhere where men feel welcomed to crafting, even though culturally it has been so female-dominated.

So I'm here to tell you about what I learned, not from crafting, but from teaching.

When it comes to kids, it's so important to be as hands-on as possible and show no fear (they can smell it from a mile away).  

Adults on the other hand need a little more wordiness with their demonstration.  

With both, though, there are so many things to remember in what it means to share an understanding of something.  

For one, people need to get their hands on what they're working with.  Don't be afraid to put a pair of knitting needles in a beginners hands and let them make mistakes, or give a kid a pinch of soil and ask them what they see.  There is endless value in letting people experience what they're trying to learn from, and words can often only go so far, and don’t just expect people to make mistakes but let people make mistakes; it's only natural and can genuinely help the learning process.  

Secondly, what you do is amazing.  When you are teaching someone just about anything new, understand that the more energy and love that you have for that subject, the more engaging it will be and the easier it will be to learn. Passion is contagious.  Anyone can drone on for what feels like eternities, but the best teachers make us feel like they're bringing us in on something special.

Lastly, remember when you're teaching that the facts of your world are not always the facts of the students’.  I learned from the kids on the farm in particular that sometimes things can seem impossibly clear and obvious, but for someone on the outside it's completely opaque.  The easiest and plainest steps are unknown to the newcomer, and that has to be appreciated.  Being gracious about the student not knowing or understanding is one of the best ways to make them feel safe learning from you.  

Now to explain this project.  I wanted a circular needle holder specifically for a long time.  Circular needles in particular just get so unwieldy and messy when they don't have a proper place to be, and circular needles happen to be my favourite things to knit on -- probably because they are what I learned how to knit on.  

This case has all the slots I wanted along with a tie in the middle to secure any of my cords for my interchangeable needles, because when I make something, I don’t start until I have about 80 notes on how it would be perfect for what I want.

Both with teaching and new projects, I find it's always wonderful to enjoy the growth that they bring.  There were so many things that were made much simpler in this case by having done the last one, and every day it gets easier to teach people.  

It's all about practice, positivity, and pressing on -- even if it's daunting or difficult.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned my dear ones.

When I first started knitting, I took countless needles from my admirably patient mother.  However, there came a point when she needed her needles back, but I wanted to hoard the whole heap of them like they were treasure and I was a dragon.

As a compromise my mother let me spend $40 or so on Ebay to get some needles of my own.  I used the money to buy two big lots of needles from people that either had a relative pass away and no one in their family knit or they had just stopped needing those particular sets.  Thrilled with my massive heaps of needles, I only stole needles from my mother now and then.

Years later when I went to visit my folks and pick up my spinning wheel I decided to grab that large collection of needles along with everything else.  

The only problem was that I never got a needle holder.  As a kid I didn't give much thought to being organised, it was never particularly important to me despite the lamenting of my dear mother.  However, now that I cook and clean for myself, being organised has become far more important to me.

So as I've chipped away at organising everything in my collection the last handful of months, I noticed the big one that I was avoiding; My collection of needles -- my precious dragon-trove.

I took out some fun fabric that I wanted to be able to showcase in a project and set to work creating the ideal needle holder for myself.

I made it laughably long, and plenty tall.  My objective was to be able to happily and comfortably fit all of my beloved single point needles in one holder (don't worry- the double point and circular needle cases will be crafted and written about soon!).

For the bottom pocket and the middle strap I cut pieces to the length of the needle holder and the width of whatever I decided (this time it was so that the pocket would be about 4-5" folded in half and the strap would be about 2" when in half).  Then I just sewed along the length to create a tube so I wouldn't have to worry about any fraying edges, and to give the holder a little bit of extra stability and strength.

The main piece to the holder (the back if you will) I made by layering the fox fabric to face out, a layer of batting to give it durability, and then placed the dark purple fabric that would face in.  I then bound it by doing traditional quilting binding all around the edge then quilted all of the pieces together by making the lines where the needles would be separated. 

As you can see I started with the lines being closer together (2" per slot) and moved onto having bigger slots for the larger needles (3").

When it was all put together, I was delighted to find that I had done the job right, and all of the needles could fit with ease (while still leaving some room for more just in case!).

Part of reason I decided on the the width I did was to ensure that the top could be folded over as I've always liked that in other needle holders that I've seen. Also because I cringe at the very notion that I would be carrying around my needles and due to distraction or accident it would somehow go upside-down and all of my needles would go flying out.

I know you're not supposed to cry over spilled milk, but needles are definitely worth a tear or two.

The last touch was to create a tie that would be able to wrap around a couple of times, and make a nice bow.  Needleless to say, it turned out splendidly.  

Finally.  A place for everything, and everything in its place.

I liked this project because I feel like it's a nice reminder that sometimes when we see expensive needle holders online and hear our wallets give an audible sob (or maybe our hearts) that there is reason to the price of such things, but also that we are crafty people.  We can make things and create, and learn as a community how to empower ourselves to make the thing that's perfect for ourselves.  It may take time, and it may take practice, and to be totally frank I'd be surprised if it didn't, but it's nice to know that the world of crafting is at our fingertips.  We just have to pick up a tool.

Thank you for reading.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.