I know I’ve seen the question of “how should I store my (especially circular and double pointed) knitting needles?” asked dozens of times. It’s also a question I’ve asked myself, and have tried a few different methods. This is my newest one, and I’m feeling pretty good about it so far. It’s pretty cheap, easy to transport, and totally re-sortable. All it requires is duct tape, plastic bags, and a binder.
My mom has hers in one of those over-the-door shoe organizers. I think that’s such a great idea, but as someone who’s in a much more transitional period of life, I wanted one that could move with me. My previous method was a roll-up with eyelets I knit. I liked it, but it would be difficult to reorganize, didn’t really accommodate my circulars well, and could be easily outgrown.
Thus, I started thinking I could buy a bunch of pencil pouches and putting my needles in them in a binder. But when I looked into it, pencil pouches are not as cheap as I’d hoped. I was thinking of getting 20, and they were going to cost at least a couple dollars per each one. But then my mom suggested hole punching ziploc bags instead, and I thought that was a great idea! So here’s how I put together this needle storage, which I imagine works great for double pointed needles, circular needles, and crochet needles, among other things.
These are the supplies I used:
A binder (I chose a fun colourful 1.5″ one with elastic ties, but any is probably fine) (if I was redoing this, though, I might choose a 2 prong one instead), duct tape (I decided on three colours, but you could certainly do this with regular cheap duct tape), plastic bags (I wanted ones with the sliders), and a 3 hole punch.
First, lay out a strip of duct tape, and lay the plastic bag on half the tape. The duct tape makes it easier to hole punch and makes the holes much stronger and less likely to rip.
Cut the tape and fold it over along the bag.
Hole punch the duct-taped edge. Since the bags I chose were only long enough for two holes, I alternated between holes on the top and holes on the bottom.
Then you can pop the bag in the binder.
Then I labelled each bag with a sharpie and put the needles in.
I decided to have one bag per size, except I did a separate bag for double pointed needles and circulars. Other than that, I just put it in order. If I get any new needles, I can make a new bag and put it in the right place.
Ta-da!
Now I have my needles all organized, accessible, and transportable. 🙂
Nava 