Make your own magnet board

The other day I was thinking, you know what I need? Yeah, yeah, ok, I know about the better health and more sleep and maybe being a bit more sensible... but for knitting, I need a magnetic board thingy, for keeping track of charts and stuff.

But I wanted to use what I had on hand... and after sleeping on it, I came up with the following solution, using flexible magnetic sheeting, as I happened to have a few sheets on hand. If you want to make this, you'll need to find a supplier, unless you have some lying around too! I'll put some links at the end...

How to Make Your Own Magnetic Chart Reader Thingy

1) Get a small sheet of flexible magnetic sheeting. A4 is fine. The one I have has a glossy white front surface.


2) Using a stanley knife and cutting board, cut a piece around 8 x 22 cm, and a smaller strip about 2 x 22 cm.



3) Slip the bigger piece, black magnetic side up, under your chart, and use the thinner piece on top, to mark your place. You can use it to hold small metallic items, too, like your Knit Picks needle key.


This nice thing about having such a thin and flexible backing piece (unlike a magnet board with a large metal backing sheet) is that this will work in a magazine, like a bookmark, and without damaging the pages. And if you prefer knitting in an armchair, with your chart lying over the arm, it still works - you don't need to sit it up on a table.

Here are some stockists of flexible magnetic sheeting; maybe you can go in with a friend, as you only need a little bit.

Rochester Magnet Company (NY)
Magnetic Flexible Rubber (Australia)
Blick Art Materials (USA)
AustMag (Australia)

It is worth asking local printers if they have offcuts available, too, I think that's where we got our strips from. Much cheaper (often free). Just look in your Yellow Pages for printers that say they print fridge magnets.

Stumble It!

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In other news, I've finished my brother Ben's wedding reception place name tags, all 196 of them! Plus their Marriage Certificate (all the names etc filled in with calligraphy, ready to be signed).


And Hubby was up in Sydney last week, and went to Tapestry Craft, and got me some KnitPicks things! He got there before me, how fair is that? Still, isn't he good?! They didn't have the 2.25 mm DPNs, hence the Pony ones (which are bloody HEAVY!). Also, the 4 mm tips, which are clearly labelled as such, are actually 3.25mm (US 4) tips :/


Today was the inaugural Stitch'n Bitch in Tuggeranong, which was lovely. There were 4 of us, Dotter, me, Friend K and Friend J - plus Judes dropped in for a bit too! Brew Bar was very good - great drinks and yummy food! A good start :)

Lastly, today I had lunch with my youngest brother Tim and my dad. We got Tim from Hennessy House (where he's back in the secure area, because he's been absconding and taking drugs again), and went to Belconnen Mall for lunch - just kebabs in the Food Court.


Conversation was difficult. Tim doesn't speak very clearly... still, he was very pleased to see me, and said that he'd heard me on the radio, and he thought I did really well. He liked that I talked about Mt Stromlo (where he first lived after my parents adopted him from Korea, when he was 5).

We talked about what movies he likes and so on, amongst the psychotic stuff about how he's god, and about the spider that used to live in his pants that took photos of everything he did 0_o He wasn't very well, had trouble walking without losing breath, was breaking out into cold sweats, and wasn't able to eat much. An hour with him was quite exhausting. Still, Dad took a photo, and I've been a slightly better sister, although I don't intend to repeat the experience soon.

I'm buggered, just shattered from the day... time for an early night!