circular needle organizer (and contest!)

One of my New Year's resolutions was to organize my Medusa's nest of circular needles. I know some people like to put them in plastic sleeves inside of binders, but having them coiled up like that didn't appeal to me, so I've designed my own. It hangs on the wall, I can see all my needles at once, and the wires are nice and relaxed. Below are my very easy directions for how I did it and you are welcome to them. If you do make one, I would love to know how it turned out.

I have used 100% wool felt for this project. Felt needs no finishing at the edges and I had lots of it leftover from when I was making and selling pillows, and I love the way it looks. 100% wool felt isn't easy to find, I got mine from Central Shippee. They only sell it by the yard so it can be costly. Craft stores also sell felt, though usually not wool, I would try to buy the thicker stuff there. The dimensions that I decided to make my organizer are completely arbitrary and you can adjust them to suit your fancy.




The first thing I did was square up my base piece of felt. I trimmed that to 8 1/2 x 25 inches using my rotary cutter and cutting mat. You can do this with scissors too, it's just easy to see if it's square on the cutting mat.




I cut 13 pieces of different colored felt to 2 1/4 x 4 inches.




Lengthening the stitch on the sewing machine and lowering the pressure foot tension helps the machine cope with the thickness of the felt and not squish it out of shape too much. I find it's almost impossible to sew a really straight line with felt and I don't really care, I'm not a precision sewer.

Fold over the top edge of the base felt about 1 1/4 inches and sew it down close to the edge.




Arrange the smaller pieces of felt on the base piece, overlapping edges about 1/4" and pin them into place making sure they are more or less straight. Sew close to the edges making sure to catch both edges.



A 1/2 inch wooden dowel inserted into the top pocket of the organizer with two metal hook eyes screwed into it completed the project and kablooey, swearing every time I looked for a needle came to and end.



The contest: My first blogiversary is coming up on January 15, so why not a little contest? I was on a roll with my organizer and I made two. The second one will be a blogiversary prize, and there will be a little something yarny too. Leave me a comment and I will randomly draw a winner. The contest will close next Friday, January 16th at 5 pm.

Thank you to all of you who have been reading, commenting, and finding me at fiber fairs. This blog has been an unexpected treat and you bloggers, and the folks that haven't wanted to leave a comment but have found me in person, have made it even more so. Thank you!