Last year, a family friend handed my mom a small paper bag full of knitting needles. It turns out that for years she had been hanging onto my great-grandmother’s knitting needles and was now able to give them back to our family. I never knew that my great-grandmother knit. My mom always attributes my crafting to my dad’s side of the family; I have quite a few creative relatives on his side. It was cool to find out there was some interest in crafting on my mom’s side too.
Fast forward to the present-day though and no one in our family knits anymore, and the needles were in pretty bad shape, which makes sense considering their age. The biggest of the needles all had a slight curve to them from being kept in a paper bags for a few decades, which might not be good for knitting purposes, but made me think I could come up with another use for them!
When I am crafting I often lose track of time, so I when I decorated my Mad House work space I knew I needed to create a clock for the wall. My great-grandma’s needles and a little MCM flair produced a one-of-a-kind piece perfect for a craft space!
To make a Knitting Needle Starburst Clock, you will need:
knitting needles
a wooden embroidery hoop
clock mechanism
small round cookie tin
paint
paintbrush
drill
wire cutters
glue gun
hot glue
I don’t think I have ever purchased a clock kit new from the store. You can almost always find a cheap clock at a thrift store for less than the cost of a new clock mechanism. I did the same thing with the Faux Book Clock I made last fall. For my craft room clock, I broke apart a Goodwill clock to remove the battery-powered mechanism. As a bonus, the remaining clock parts could be used for some other kind of project.
I began by drilling holes in my embroidery hoop at the same intervals as the hours on a clock. I tried to create a pattern with the lengths of the needles to add a little bit of balance to the starburst. Next I inserted the knitting needles in the holes all the way around.
Once the needles were in place, I adjusted them to make sure they were all curving in the same direction. Once I was satisfied, I hot glued them in place.
I used my wire cutters to cut the needles inside the embroidery hoop to make sure the battery pack fit between them. Be careful not to put your eye out with the flying needle pieces!
I took the lid from a 25 cent tin from Goodwill, painted it white, and drilled a hole in the center of it so that the clock mechanism would fit through it. If you are worried about drilling into the metal, you can also hammer a nail into the middle of the tin a few times to make a hole large enough for the clock parts to fit through.
I flipped the tin over, added the needle starburst and the battery pack, and glued everything in place.
I used hot glue because all the clock parts are very light. If you want to make sure your version is extra secure, use a stronger adhesive like E-6000 and let it cure for 24 hours.
Once it is all dried and cured, you can flip your clock over to make sure everything attached in the right spot. Pop in a few batteries and check that the clock mechanism is working properly.
I hammered two nails into the wall and hung the clock up in my work space. I really love the retro design, and I think it’s pretty cool that I was able to use my great-grandma’s crafting tools in my work room!
This is a project that I originally created for Décor Hacks. If you love stylish and inexpensive DIY décor, check them out today!
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Thanks, Jessica
Abbys Tochter, Olivia, entwickelt ein Drogenproblem. Abby zog sie zusammen und half ihrer Tochter durch. Greg vermeintlichen Bruder Peter Hollister zeigte sich, schlie脽lich Liquidation Toten und darunter einen Kinderspielplatz auf dem Gel盲nde des Gary, Abby, und Karen Immobilienunternehmen, Lotus Punkt begraben.