Orgainzed: Knitting Needles

For those of you who knit, you know the mess that can ensue in a drawer when all your needles are put there.  Straight needles, circular needles, odd bits of yarn...  It quickly becomes a tangled mess that does nothing to encourage one to pick up some needles and start creating.

That was exactly what I was facing yesterday when I opened my knitting drawer.  But my daughter wanted to knit something, and so I knew I needed to deal with ... the mess!

As I started to untangle everything and spread it across the kitchen counter, I knew there had to be a better way.  I hopped on Google, hoping to find an answer to my problem.  Ah, for $60 (plus shipping) I can buy something that hangs on the back of my door to put needles in.  Um, no thanks.

I kept searching, but nothing struck me.  So, I returned to the kitchen to finish the untangling.

Now, I'm the kind of person who likes to solve a problem by using what I already have onhand.  As my mind was going through different options of storing these needles, the thought hit me: Most of these needles are pretty colors... different colors... bright colors...  What would it be like to put them in a vase?  So, I went to the self where I keep the vases, and I grabbed a big one-- the one you'd get if someone gave you a dozen roses.  I put all my straight needles in it, and they fit beautifully.

But that left the question of what to do with the circular ones.  After all, the straight ones are easy.  They fit nicely in a drawer.  It's those pesky circular ones that make the mess.  Some people put them back in the original bags, but I don't like the cable between the needles to "remember" its previously kinked position!

That's when I thought about using bread tabs (the plastic ones) to tie the cables together near where they meet the needles.  The needles could go into the vase and the cable could flop outside the vase.  I tried it, and it looked okay, but something wasn't right.  The needles needed to be more securely tied together.

Enter: our oldest son's leftover rubber bands that he wore when he had braces.  (He had a bunch left when the orthodontist told him he didn't need to wear them anymore.)  I slipped one on the ends of the needles.  They still wiggled a bit, so I added another rubberband.  It worked beautifully!

So, instead of a mubbled drawer of knitting supplies, I have a vase filled with beautifully-colored knitting needles.  Hmmm.... makes me want to go knit something...