I grew up surrounded by women who knew how to wield pastel, plastic knitting needles, cold metal crochet hooks and thousands of pins. From around the age of 5, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into this fold. I resisted mightily!! And I was bad at all of it. I have very clear memories of my grandmother undoing an entire teddy bear I knit (a 3rd grade "needlework" assignment) and re-knitting it, the night before I had to hand it to my teacher. Because Granny had some sense of my little-girl pride, she never told anyone. I had a pretty amazing grandmother.
Anyway, I loathed "home economics" and pretty much all the domestic "arts" at which both my parents excel. But it seems I picked up on some basics and now I'm very grateful for them. I can't say that I love to knit or crochet and my sewing is mostly garment hacking for refab purposes. But hey, I know how! And yes, it's hard to do any of these things well. So I now have a ton of respect for the needle-wielding talents of the world. And when you can no longer use the needles ... or they're so "vintage" they're warping ... I have some ideas for how you can refab them!
Liana Kabel's Knitwit jewelry is a phenomenon. Seeing her work inspired this post. For tutorials on how to make your own beautiful things with old needles and pins, read on ...