Large Knitting Needle Holder

---

Having a lot of big knitting needles can prove to be difficult for storage. And not liking any of the online options, I decided to make my own!

Total Project Time: 1 hour

After putting together, a case for all of the double pointed knitting needles (see here) I decided to make a holder for my larger knitting needles and my circular needles. I will admit, when I first thought of this holder, I did not conceive the color pattern all together properly. I am going to talk it through as if I did though, so the pictures won’t match perfectly. That being said, even with the pattern being a little bit busy, it turned out fairly well!

Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in forever fabrics or more unlimited ideas.

---

---

Supplies

For this project, I used two different fabrics, one for the outside that will be referred to at the “patterned fabric” and one for the inside that I will refer to as the “plain fabric”. The third main component would be the zipper. The zipper ended up being the determining factors for the size of the bag. For mine, I decided to use a 12 inch zipper as some of my needles turned out to be very long.

For the patterned fabric, the following sizes should be cut:

• 12 in. by 8 in.
• 12 in. by 6 in.
• 12 in. by 4 in.
• 12 in. by 2 in. (x3)

For the plain fabric, the following sizes should be cut:

• 12 in. by 12 in.
• 12 in. by 10 in.
• 12 in. by 8 in.

Remember to leave some wiggle room around the edges of each of the fabric pieces to allow for minor adjustments!

Process

For this pattern, I like to separate the project into two distinct parts: The inside and the outside. These two parts can be prepared separately and then joined together to make the final finished pattern.

The Outside

For the outside, we are only looking at two pieces of fabric, but we have to deal with my arch nemesis: the zipper. When I first started working with zippers, I thought it was going to be okay, now I have a random dislike for working with them. But they do may everything a lot better. We will need the 12 in. by 8 in. and the 12 in. by 4 in. patterned fabric. Effectively, we want to combine these two pieces of fabric to make a 12 in. by 12 in. piece of fabric with one side of the zipper being placed between the fabric.

The outside piece can be prepped with only one line of sewing! Only the 12 in. by 8 in. piece of fabric needs to be edged as the 12 in. by 4 in. will be place underneath and will then be sewn onto the inside of the complete piece.

The Inside

Here is where most of the work is going to be done. Also, where my words might not match the pictures of the project. In the supplies section, I said you needed a 12 in. by 10 in. and a 12 in. by 8in. pieces of plain fabric. In the picture, these will be patterned. I think the end result looks a little too busy if only the patterned is used which is why I decided to make the change when writing up this recipe.

First, we’re going to want to create edges for some of the pieces of fabric as they will not be full enclosed. You’ll want to edge one side of the following fabrics:

• 12 in. by 2 in. (x3) patterned fabric
• 12 in. by 6 in. patterned fabric

We will then add the top flaps for each layer. For this, you’ll want to place the unedged piece of the 12 in. by 2 in. laying face down. This will have the right side of each fabric placed together along the 12-inch edge. This should be done to combine a 12 in. by 10 in. plain fabric with a 12 in. by 2 in. patterned fabric as well as a 12 in. by 8 in. plain fabric and a 12 in. by 2 in. patterned fabric. 

Now each layer will be prepared individually on the inside. I wanted to have the top layer with smaller pocket for each set of needles. The is place the 12 in. by 10 in plain fabric (now with flap) against the 12 in. by 12 in. plain fabric. The bottom edges for these fabrics should be aligned. The flap should be flipped up to make the pockets to hide the top stitch. I made each pocket about an inch wide. In total, I made about eight pockets.

Now it’s time to add the additional layers of pockets! Place the 12 in. by 8 in. plain fabric with the flap on top aligned with the bottom of the inside piece. Then place the 12 in. by 6 in. patterned fabric with the edged side facing up and the unedge side aligned with the bottom. The pockets will then be sewn in by sewing straight lines through the entire piece. On the lower levels, I wanted to have three large pockets on each for my circular needs.

While I didn’t do it for this project, I would highly recommend sewing the lines through the flaps to have keep the tension required for the flaps to be of full use.

The last step we have to do on the inside is to place the last 12 in. by 2 in. flap of the patterned fabric at the top of the 12 in. by 12 in. plain fabric. This one will only need to be held in place (using needles) since it will be sewn in during the nest step!

Combining the Pieces

All that’s left is to combine to inside and outside pieces. Place the “right” side of each fabric facing each other. Using needle, hold the other half of the zipper in place between the two pieces of fabric, 6 inches from the first half of the zipper. Sew a 12 in. by 12 in. box around the work, leaving a gap to turn the fabric right side out. The turn the fabric right side out :P. Use a hidden stitch to close up the project.

And Voila!

Lessons

Be Mindful of Colors and Patterns

As I said at the start, I did not make good decision in terms of what should be patterned fabric and what should be plain fabric. It’s important when building up the layers to know what is going to effectively be “background” to make sure you choose the right fabric for each project!

Fasten Down the Hatches!

When building open pockets with flaps, it’s important to think about the tension of the fabric. Too loose and it won’t be able to properly hold anything properly.

Quick Recipe