Knit Kit

The other day I was stuck on the phone waiting for the Shaw customer service rep to take me off hold, when I decided to knit a few rounds of one of my current projects. I was fishing around the large Ziplock bag that held all my knitting notions that I take with me on the go, trying to find a stitch marker. It took me forever to find one and after much inner cursing, I realized that the majority of the stuff in my "knitting bag" were things that I just didn't need. Actually, a lot of it were things from previous projects, like stray pom poms, swatches, yarn labels, and scraps of yarn. When I got off the phone I made a mental note to make my knitting life easier by cleaning out said Ziplock bag. That never happened. Then I went to knit night. As I was starting a new project, I realized that I needed my row counter. It took me 10 minutes to find the blasted thing! Something needed to be done!

So later that night, after the wee one went to bed, I got started on what should have been a simple and quick project. Instead, I turned it into a much bigger project. How did I do that? Well, rather than finding a smaller Ziplock (yes, I love my Ziplock baggies!) or similar little bag, I munched down the last few remaining Altoids left in my tin before turning it into my new knit kit container.

After washing out the tin I threw what I thought were the essentials into it and snapped the lid closed. Yeah, I wasn't satisfied. I dumped everything back out and decided the tin needed to be bedazzled. No, I didn't want to cover the tin in rhinestones. And no, I don't own/have a Bedazzler. Instead, I découpaged some pizazz onto that boring tin. I got the idea from Brett, who got the idea from my old Archie comic sewing box. Which is this:

I made this when I was in high school (when I should've been doing homework) and have had it ever since. Recognize the shape? That's right, it's a Caboodles case!! Remember Caboodles? Ahhh...the 80s wouldn't be the 80s without Caboodles filled with scrunchies, Wet & Wild make up and tons of brightly colored plastic jewelry... I wonder, do they even make Caboodles any more??

Well, over ten years ago I was cleaning out my bedroom and needed to get rid of stuff when I came across the Caboodles. I didn't really want to throw it out or donate it since it was still a perfectly good storage container. I don't know what possessed me back then, but I decided to découpage the crap out of it with old Archie comic books that I was going to throw out anyways (cause that's what we did in the early 90s, we threw stuff out in the garbage...so don't hate!). I remember going through at least 20 double digests trying to find the right comic square to paste onto my Caboodles. I think I laboured over that case 'til the wee hours of the morning! So I still have that case. I use it now to hold drafting and domestic sewing machine supplies (half of all this is currently splayed out on my ironing board and not in here). People always laugh when they see it. If you want to see more photos of it, check it out on my flickr here.

Anyways, so that's the inspiration for my tin. Only I didn't go all out and cover it with a million pieces of paper. Nope, I just covered it with a black and white houndstooth print paper (what, no hot pink??) that's meant for scrapbooking. I have a huge package of "designer" scrapbooking paper in my sewing closet, I think it was an impulse buy from Michaels. I have no idea why I have it. I also have jars and jars upon bottles and bottles of sparkle Mod Podge...why? I have no clue. But I do. A few layers of that, some sweet paper, and I've gots me a funky and sparkly knit kit!

You can kind of see a bit of the sparkle here, it's very subtle in person

The sparkle close up and under some light

So what's in my knit kit?

• a measuring tape (pink, of course!)
• extra large folding scissors
• stitch markers - rings, a few split rings, and a few locking
• yarn needle
• row counter
  
• mini crochet hook

How cute is that little crochet hook?? When I first saw it I thought it was for pure novelty, but it sure has come in handy quite a few times when I dropped a stitch here and there! If you don't know what's what, I left notes on the photo in my flickr, so you can check that out here.

I was going to add point protectors but I don't have any, and truthfully, I don't use them. So I figured I didn't need to add them. On standby I have little pouches of the split and locking stitch markers, in case I start a crochet project or something that involves major markings of whatever...for those who knit or crochet, you know what I mean! ;) I currently have a small row counter in there, with a larger one also on standby for when I need to use larger needles.

As you can see, I left the top part of the bottom un-découpaged. From experience I learned to not mess with the closing mechanics of a case. Once you slap on some Mod Podge where the two parts meet to close the box, you'll be cursing the fact that the glue/sealer has caused the tin to stick when trying to open/close it.

These were so fun to make that I'm thinking of making a few more to give as gifts to friends that knit. With that said, I should go and start eating up as many Altoids as I can! Who else has a knit kit?