Needle in the Hay

The plight of every person who crafts to deal with anxiety and stress: traveling out of town (inevitably stressful, you’re dealing with transport schedules, packing, food issues, homesickness), needing a distraction, and being bereft of anything resembling crafting supplies.

Strange Folk Festival and Yarn Geek Fibers saved part of my trip this past weekend, but when I sat down with my crochet hook and my new bundle of yarn, something just wasn’t clicking.

I needed knitting needles.

With no car, no money for STL’s anemic public transit, and no craft supply stores within walking distance, I improvised.

The 10″ bamboo skewers are from Jay’s International Market on South Grand. 89 cents for a hundred of them. 89 cents. The skewers are 3mm wide — making them a US 2 (UK 11). I thought I might need to sand one or two of them down to avoid rough edges, but having been designed for culinary use, they’re pretty smooth. Two days of knitting and I haven’t gotten a splinter yet.

Without any polymer clay, cute pencil erasers, or electrical tape, I ended up improvising the plastic end caps from a milk ring my friends left on their kitchen counter (safety check: do not melt plastics without proper safety precautions and make sure you know it’s safe for melting or burning).

So, upside: now I known I can improvise a pair of needles in a pinch! (Though I will be adding electrical tape to my “always carry” bag)

Has anyone else ever had to make or grab something on the run?

~ by blackmoodcraft on September 28, 2015.