Embellishing Queen Abalina

 

knitting needle bangles

 

While scurrying around to estate sales, flea markets and such I rarely say no to a basket of sewing treasures.

 There’s nothing like digging through an old sewing tin full of notions and supplies.

 I find all sorts of curious objects.

 As a result I have accumulated lots of knitting needles.

In my younger years I tried my hand at knitting, only to discover it was not my cup of tea.

This summer while cleaning out my garden shed I came across a bucket full of  them.

For years I used the needles for plant markers.

 After examining and admiring all the pretty colors I decided to see what kind of crafty thing could be done with them.

I googled “crafts to make out of old knitting needles”

To my delight I discovered the bangles.

How fun!

Surely I could do that!

DIRECTIONS:

wash the needles

bring a pot of water to a boil

drop in a couple of needles for 5 minutes or so

when they are soft and pliable pull them out with tongs and wrap them around something that is approx. 8 inches in diameter

hold them in place for a few seconds and then take them off and  let them cool for 20 minutes

SOUNDS EASY….RIGHT?

I cleaned all my needles and dropped a few in boiling water.

After about 12 minutes they were ready to come out.

Using tongs I lifted them out one at a time and wrapped them around a glass tumbler.

Very difficult.

They harden in seconds when removed from the water.

Burning my fingers the entire time while trying to hold them in place was really frustrating.

Most of them had to be thrown back in the water and re-boiled several times until I got the right shape.

I also noticed that after a few hours some of them were un-curling.

Later with very sore fingers I decided to call it a day.

 

Button Cabinet

A few years back we spotted this throw away cabinet along the side of an office building in nearby Bridgeton.