Handmade Knitting Needles

Today's adventure was to create my own knitting needles. I purchased a wooden dowel at a local craft store for less than 1 dollar. I divided it into 4 equal pieces, cut them with a pair of garden shears and then sharpened the ends in a pencil sharpener.

Finished acorn capped needles

Then I played with some polymer clay and a few acorn tops I had left over from my felted acorn project. A rolled a few balls of clay and stuffed them into the acorn cap. Then I pushed the needle into the cap/clay and reworked the clay shape (ever so slightly!).

blurry close up of pink & green acorns!

After pre-heating the oven, I baked them for a little over 15 minutes - caps, clay and dowel.

a little more natural then the pink/green!

After they cooled I took a little wax paper and bees wax to smooth the dowel/needles. I also popped off the acorn top and added a little glue...just in case.

Now...what should I knit?!

Yarn bombing a cup of coffee...

Have I lost my mind?

Actually, my dear friend Robyn (www.rainbowweaves.blogspot.com) was offering up a "Queen of Hearts" challenge and I wondered how I could incorporate yarn and a Valentine's gift. This is what I came up with...

A coffee cozy with LOMA Cafe coffee!

I decided to create a coffee cozy by knitting a rectangle, sewing a crocheted chain into the shape of a heart and then whip stitching it into a tube shape.

before I sewed up the cozy!

Then I added a cup of delicious LOMA Cafe coffee and gave it away to a man on the street as I wished him a Happy Valentine's Day. It is sometimes nice to give your heart away!

Wishing everyone a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!