Knitting Needle Bangles

vintage red knitting needle bangles

I wasn't meant to be making these today, I had the lofty idea that I would play the perfect housewife and made the house a perfectly shiny and lovely place, with everything dusted and washed and lemon scented. Like that was ever going to really happen, although I did bake accidental brownies last night. I had cracked eggs that needed using. Besides baking is a different sort of craft, to me cooking and baking can either be hard work or zen like, last night it was zen like, and then there was a bowl of ooey gooey brownie batter....mmmmmm....where was I? oh yes knitting needle bangles.

Why did I make knitting needle bangles? because Megan did and she inspire me to, seeing as I was moving some winter wear up to the attic and I just happened to "knock over" my box of yarn and knitting needles and the called out to me to turn them into jewellery. What's a girl to do? why listen of course. I had read about making knitting needle bangles a year or to ago and never got around to it until I saw Megan's and thought why not. But I am adamant that Megan is a bad crafty influence on me... next she will have me scouring the shops for vintage buttons!

There are several tutorials out there if you google to tell you how to make knitting needle bangles, but its basically very simple, the hardest part is finding nice vintage knitting needles.


How to make knitting needle bangles

you will need:
vintage plastic knitting needles
a pan
tongs (or tweezers)
a tin or jar (measuring roughly 8" around)
gloves (optional if you have Teflon hands like mine)

1. boil a pot of water.

2. place your knitting needle in the pot, Its a bit like cooking spaghetti, push the knitting needle into the water a bit at a time until it is fully submerged. ( soften for 5 to 10 minutes in the hot water)

3. Use the tongs to remove the knitting needle from the boiling water and wrap the needle around a can or jar. I used my bare fingers but you can use kitchen gloves to wrap the needle around.

4. plunge the can and bangle into cold water to set.

5. if the bangle isn't quite right, pop it back into the boiling water to reshape.


easy as 1...2...3...4...5

PennyDog Knitting Needles

black glitter knitting needles (the wool is Noro Kureyon)

Look what Mr. Fluffy Haired Postie brought for me on Tuesday! Fantastically fabulous black glitter resin knitting needles handmade by the incredibly talented (and published) Kerry of PennyDog Jewellery . I will admit that I may have badgered her quite a bit that she needed to get black glitter for her resin knitting needles, I won't take all the credit or blame though as Dria and a few others also annoyed her as well.

I wasn't expecting them as a gift, even though she said she would send me something for the balls of yarn I sent her for display purposes. Its the loveliest thing about being a crafty blogger, how lovely everyone is in the blogging/crafting community, its enough to make one cry, or at least make me cry that there are so many like minded and helpful people out there. It is truly a wondrous thing.

Kerry do these knitting needles have a name? Black Glitter or something more emo or goth glam?

I can't wait to start knitting with them, I'm not sure what my knitting is only very simple, but I do need to knit a rock cover for the Knitted Nature knit Graffiti Challenge on Crafteroo.