Not Hanging Around

I'd never really thought about knitting a cover for wooden coat hangers until I saw the gorgeous pattern in The Gentle Art of Knitting, the lovely new knitting book by Jane Brocket (Mum's got a copy which I read voraciously whilst I was in Bristol and I've now put in a request to have a copy of my own for my birthday.)  Oddly enough, plain wooden coat hangers are something I have an awful lot of.  I've no idea where they ever came from (probably a long-ago jumble sale) or if they are actually just multiplying by themselves in the dark of the wardrobe - whatever, I have masses of them. 

They're very useful utilitarian objects but they do tend to leave a bit of a mark if I hang T-shirts or jersey tops from them, so it was a bit of a 'eureka' moment for me when I found this really simple garter stitch pattern for covering them.

 
Et voila!  One evening's knitting later and I've got a fine and dandy covered coat-hanger all gussied up with one of the lovely wooden buttons from Cowboys and Custard that I bought at last weeks Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair.  For this hanger I used lots of tiny lengths of what I suspect was originally tapestry wool but all those ends did make it a bit fiddly to sew together, so I'm now embarking on a second cover and am using regular DK wool (from a ball of yarn) as specified in the pattern.

 
And with the extra knitted padding, I can now hang anything I want from this hanger without worrying about having little wing-like protuberances sitting on my shoulders!

 

Comments

[Loo xx from Jumbles and Pompoms]

Elizabeth, it looks lovely and I really like the button as an embellishment.

I've finally managed to add your blog to my Google Reader and it was so easy to do as well (it's hard being a technophobe!).

[Barbara Simpson]

I love it, especially the button, what a great idea.

[Trekky]

Protuberances - now that is a word you don't hear everyday! :)

I keep seeing such good reviews for this book - I must track it down!