You may have seen these little embellished felt circles in your needlework shop or on a friend’s canvas. You may wonder what they are, I know I did.
The circles are handmade needle cozies from Merry L Needlework Accessories. Not only are they great needle minders, they have some additional features that make them special.
Mary Ellen, the owner of the company says about them: “They are made of merino wool felt imported from Holland. Just running the needle through the wool cleans … Removing any naturals oils, etc from handling. I’ve read that the same property sharpens the tips a little.” I haven’t stress-tested them with some of my really dirty needles, but they do a great job of keeping the ones I use currently sharp.
The cozies themselves are about 1″ in diameter and close to 1/4″ high. That means you can’t use them where space is tight, but they will work well on any normal canvas.
They come with two Rare Earth magnets, one inside the cozy. The other magnet is for the back of the canvas. I really liked that they are bigger (1/2″) than most magnets on needleminders and that they are thin. While their primary purpose is to hold the cozy to the canvas, they also provide an extra bit of security for your needle.
The felt itself will be the main way your needle is held, you can stick it in anywhere. When testing it I tried it two ways.
First I tried it sticking it straight into the cozy. It went right in with no problems. When you do this, the point is buried in the cozy, so the cleaning properties of the felt come into play.
I also tried sticking it across the cozy, parallel to the base. This was slightly less successful. I found that I needed to steady the cozy in place when I poked in the needle. Otherwise it scurried across the canvas. If you store the needles this way, you have to be careful about placement. Store it so the point is inside some of the felt and so that the eye is sticking out enough so you can grab it.
These are only very minor inconveniences with what is a fantastic and useful tool. Find them at your local needlework store,
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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