DIY Leather Yarn Holder | Portable Knitting Helper

This project idea came about as I wanted a portable holder for my knitting yarn, and I was trying to think of a material that was light but could also hold it's shape around the yarn....and of course leather sprung to mind!

On researching this idea, I realised others had indeed thought of it first, as the 'yarn cage' seems to be pretty trendy at the moment, but mine is a bit different in design. Also, I've specifically tried to make the project as simple and as accessible as possible, so the techniques are straightforward and you only need an A4 sized piece of leather to create it.

I hope you enjoy this Instructable :)

• Leather; I used an A4 sized piece of 2 mm brown dyed veg tan leather, i.e. 20 x 30 cm, or 12 x 8"
• Leather Hole Punch; I used a revolving one with a choice of sizes. I used the 5 mm punch.
• Eyelets, Eyelet Setting Tool & Hammer; I used 5 mm silver eyelets.
• Chicago Posts/Screw Posts; I used 2 posts with a post length of 20mm, and a shank diameter of 5 mm (M5).
• Screwdriver
• Burnishing Tool for Leather; I used a cheap wooden burnisher.
• Utility Knife and/or Craft Knife
• Metal Ruler
• Something Round; you'll need something small with a circular shape to draw around... I used a thread spool.
• Water
• Cutting Mat
• Cord; I used brown suede cord.
• Pen
• Washer (optional); approx. the same width as the width of a strip - in this case, 20 mm wide.

The first step is to cut the A4 piece of leather into strips, and I wanted to create 10 strips for my project.

So, I measured and marked every 20 mm from the left side, at both the top and the bottom of the piece. And I then positioned the metal ruler between each pair of marks and cut between them using the utility knife.

This should give you 10 x 20 mm strips and a tiny slither of leftover leather.

I wanted the ends of the strips nice and rounded, so I looked for something circular I could draw around and found an empty thread spool. You can use anything that is round and a similar size to the end of the strips.

Place the item at the end of a strip, in the centre, and use a craft knife to carefully draw around it. Remove the item and then go over the line you've cut over and over until you cut through.

Repeat this at each end of every strip.

Although optional, burnishing gives the edges of the leather a much smoother finish. I personally just used a cheap wooden burnishing tool I got off off Ebay to do this, plus some water.

You need to add a little water to the edge of the leather first, then rub the burnishing tool back and forth along that dampened edge. Burnish the edges a short section at a time, all of the way around.

I used the 2nd-smallest valley in the burnishing tool as it fit the thickness of leather I'm using the best.

In the last photos above, you can see that the 'fluffy' edges of the leather disappear and they become rounded and have a nice shine. That's what you're aiming for.

This can take a while because there are a lot of edges on these strips, so it's up to you if you think it's worth it!

Next, punch a hole at each end of each strip. I'm using 5 mm screw posts and eyelets, so I'm using the 5 mm hole punch throughout this project.

Before you punch each hole, make sure you mark where you want it to go first. This should be around 1 cm from the end, and in the centre.

To help me mark in the same position each time, I used a washer approx. the same width as the strip, lined it up with the end and the sides, and then put a pen mark in the centre. If you don't have a washer, you can make your own template from paper, or just measure each time.

The manual hole punch takes some elbow grease, especially with 20 holes to punch, but you'll get there!

Stack the strips on top of each other and push a screw post through all of the holes at one end, and then through all of the holes at the other. The plain end of each screw post should be on the outside/front.

(I left one leather strip out of the stack because I'm using it as the armband/bracelet later, but you might prefer to keep it in the stack and use something else later on for the armband.)

Spread the strips evenly apart to form the circle 'cage' shape, and then tighten the screws with a screwdriver.

In order to create a hole for the yarn to go through, so that it moves smoothly and freely from inside, you'll need to add an eyelet.

So, choose the leather strip you want to insert the eyelet into (I used the innermost strip), fold it loosely in half so you can find the centre (but don't crease it) and mark where you want the eyelet to go.

Punch the hole, then push an eyelet through from front to back. Put the strip face-down on your cutting mat, push the eyelet setting tool into the back of the eyelet, then hit the tool with a hammer until the eyelet is set in place. Or follow the instructions that should come with your eyelet tool.

I then used the same method to add 2 more eyelets - this time at the top of the outermost leather strip. In hindsight, I should've spcaed these further apart so they were either side of the centre (the screw post). This is where the cord & armband will be attached to.

The spare leather strip I had from earlier will now become the armband, which will be attached to the yarn holder with suede cord.

So I fed the cord through the holes in the strip, so there was an equal amount on each side. Then I tied a knot to keep the strip closed into a bangle shape, fed the other ends through the 2 eyelets, and finally tied another knot.

I left about 8 cm (3") between the yarn holder and the armband.

Note that you can use a ready-made bangle, scrunchie or something similar instead if you don't like the leather strap. You just need something comfortable for your arm.

Put a centre-pull ball of yarn inside, and you're ready to go!

You can now walk around whilst knitting (or crocheting), or just keep the yarn neatly organised rather than having it roll around the floor or on a table :)

I hope you liked this Instructable.