Punchinello Caps for Knitting Needles to Knit

Are you looking for a small knitting project to use up the leftover bits of fingering-weight yarn that you have accumulated? Cast on Ann Budd’s adaptation of “Punchinello Caps for Knitting Needles” from Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 11. With her instructions, there will be no need to decipher tricky Victorian knitting jargon. Just have fun knitting and playing with infinite color combinations!

The illustration of the “Punchinello Caps for Knitting Needles” from Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 11.

Ann explains, “These colorful needle protectors appeared in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 11. Two tiny pom-pom caps are knitted with fingering-weight wool on size 0000 (1.25 mm) double-pointed needles and connected with a braided cord. The caps fit snugly over corks, which keep the sharp points of slender needles from poking through the fabric between knitting sessions. Punchinello is the British name for Pulcinella, a clown character in Italy’s seventeenth-century commedia dell’arte and still a favorite in puppet shows throughout the world.”

Current PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and instantly access this bonus subscriber-exclusive PDF download below.

Materials

• Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, 100% Shetland wool yarn, fingering weight, 115 yards (105.2 m)/.9 oz (25 g) ball, small amounts of #425 Mustard (yellow), #187 Sunrise (red), and #147 Moss (green)
• Needles, set of 4 double pointed, size 0000 (1.25 mm)
  
• Tapestry needle
  
• Wine-bottle cork, cut in half cross-wise

Finished size: About 1¾ inches (4.4 cm) long, excluding pom-poms and cord, and 3 inches (7.6 cm) in circumference

Gauge: About 10 stitches and 16 rounds = 1 inch (2.5 cm) in stockinette stitch; exact gauge is not critical for this project