A Home for Stitch Markers.

I like to drag my knitting along with me (who doesn't?), and my knitting bag contains, apart from the current yarn, needles, and stitches on the needles, a few extra things. These are, mainly, a crochet hook (just in case something needs catching), a little bit of emergency chocolate (because you never know), a needle gauge (because I never know), a row counter ring and, of course, stitch markers and darning needles. The latter just in case I finish a project unexpectedly quickly...

I used to keep the latter two in a tiny ziplock bag, until very recently, when the little bag refused to keep them in any longer, due to a split side seam. So it was clear I need something to replace it. Something sturdier. Something slightly larger (one of the darning needles was almost too large for the bag). And, preferably, something prettier.

So I had a little rootle and found things. Such as a zipper leftover from buying notions for another project (I decided on using a different one). A leftover bit of linen with 26 threads per centimetre, which makes it dense enough to securely hold small things. And to top it all off, a wonderful piece of patterned silk fabric that Gillian sent me in a little package a while ago... which, colour-wise, went nicely with the green zipper.

So what remained but putting them all together?

I started off with drawing out a pattern, and cutting it from both the linen and the silk.



The silk was just large enough for what I had in mind - lucky coincidence!

I tried to sew both layers together at first, but quickly found that this would not work - so it was the linen layer as the first step, and then the silk cover to go over that base.



I fixed the zipper to the straight edge of the linen first, then bent it around and sewed the curved top together. Nipping the linen made it much easier to get this done.



It still remained a very fiddly process!

After the linen inner part was done, I only had to cover it with the silk. Again, I did the straight line along the zipper first, then the rest.



And then... it was done, and ready to be filled.



It's small, yet roomy enough for all my stitch markers and darning needles, with space to spare for more. I'll probably add two tiny loops of silk fabric to the ends of the zipper for easier opening and closing, but altogether, I'm already very pleased with it!