Knitting

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Gift Idea: Yarn Bowls

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Gift idea for knitters: yarn bowlsI don’t have a yarn bowl, but I love the idea of them and I know a lot of knitters use them and love them.

A yarn bowl is basically a bowl with some kind of hole or groove in the side through which yarn can travel. You put your yarn cake or ball in the bowl, thread the working end through the hole and knit away, with the bowl keeping your yarn from rolling around on the floor (and protected from cats/toddlers, if that’s a concern in your house). This teapot is way too small to actually use as a yarn bowl, but you get the idea.

Some models have multiple holes for doing colorwork or for holding needles when you’re not knitting. There are all sorts of handmade ceramic versions on etsy, from beautiful pieces of pottery to whimsical pieces shaped like animals, faces with the yarn coming out of the mouth or nose and more.

I think a yarn bowl, with or without some yummy yarn included, would be a great gift for a knitter on your list.

Do you have a yarn bowl? I’d love to hear about how you use it and if you use it in a functional or decorative way, or both!

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Comments

  1. How about s strawberry pot? LOTS of holes to use and there are some nice big ones out there. I see them at flea markets all the time… and they’re so pretty!

  2. I ‘ve used a panettone tin with great success. Drill a hole either on lid or on side of tin, a large tin can easily hold a 400g ball of yarn

Have you read?

Knit a Fish Pouch, for Reasons

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]