DIY Napkin Rings
By Karina | September 10, 2008
Friend of Tiny Choices Stacey Bhaerman told me about one of her recent TinyChoices and it was so cool I asked her her to write it up. She is sweet, and did!
One of the first subjects covered on Tiny Choices was the choice to move from paper disposable to cloth napkins.
At that time, I was already using cloth napkins, but since I was living alone, I could just toss my napkin on the table confident it would be there when I returned. When I had guests over, they would rarely be there for more than one meal, so their napkin would generally go straight to the laundry.
Now that I have two lovely roommates and a whole bunch of cloth napkins that look the same, (the napkins, not the roommies) I decided napkin rings were in order. I wasn’t going to buy them, which left me with one question – sew or knit?
There are, of course, other options. Many household objects can be used to distinguish napkins – colored safety pins or binder clips; ribbons or fabric scraps tied around; decorated cut toilet paper tubes. But, I decided I wanted to make something nice for our apartment, which again left me with: “sew or knit?”.
I chose knitting because of the many yarn bits & pieces I had available, but sewing napkin rings wouldn’t be that tricky either.
I used a medium weight acrylic yarn and number 7 double pointed needles to make the napkin holders, but whatever is on hand will work well. I cast on 18 stitches and knitted a 3×3 rib in the round for about 6 rows, cast off and called it a napkin ring. I did that two more times and called it a set.
Voila – three napkin rings – turquoise for Carol (I let her choose), white with pink trim for Tricia (at Carol’s suggestion) & orange for me. So now we can each easily identify our own napkin and know no one else used it.
Do you use napkin rings at home, or do you have another way of distinguishing your napkins?
Topics: Crafts/DIY, Home | 13 Comments »
Great great great idea, Stacey! At my place, my roommate and I use different color napkins (I’m blue, she’s red), so we always know who’s who.
Thanks for the guest post!
What a good idea! I’m planning an Epic Thanksgiving 2008, and I’d love to be able to also try for a Tiny Choices-style TGiving– cloth napkins, knitted napkin rings (I have so much spare yarn), reusable straws (why not!), local produce when possible, etc. I know Thanksgiving is a long way off, but not really!
Hey Miranda! We’d LOVE to hear about your Tiny Choices-style Thanksgiving– once all is said and done, if you’d like to write up a guest post about it we’d be thrilled to post it!
Count me in! I would love to write about it once it happens! (Counting down the days….)
Matching napkins are only used for dinner parties, which I just set at each place setting without napkin rings. Otherwise we use non-matching napkins so each person knows which one is theirs.
I haven’t gotten any napkin rings, but I’ve seen some clever ones on Etsy… I seem to remember some made out of film canisters or something like that. Lots of opportunities for upcycling here, I think–especially for folks who don’t sew or knit (like me)!
Great idea! I know what I’m making at knitting group this week!
we use different colors at home, but when we go to Mom’s for holidays and have matching napkins there’s always this pressure to keep your napkin on your chair and remember where you sat… I’m thinking sewn napkin rings with names embroidered would be a perfect gift for Mom this year…
that’s a great gift idea!
we sit in the same seats at each meal, so napkins stay on placemats. seat placement based on personal preference — daughter sits with back to parrot, because parrot’s staring during meals “creeps her out”.
when I was a kid we had a basket shaped like a duck and special napkin rings. when we cleared the table napkins and rings would go into the special basket so we could use the table for other activities (like homework! it seems so long ago!) during the rest of the day.
[...] and use up bits of yarn for napkin rings. [...]
[...] and use up bits of yarn for napkin rings. [...]