First flashes and garter ties

[BobF]

I’m showing off my first flashes and garter ties. The woman that altered my kilt is making me some flashes from the leftover tartan, but I’m guessing they won’t be ready before next week, and I don’t want to bug her. So I tried my hand at a couple of other options in the meantime. First were simple flashes made from cotton webbing, folded, sewn, frayed, and put on elastic. The second is a pair of spool-knitted garters. You can also see the hillbilly-engineered spool knitter that I made, which is a short length of closet pole that I ran a 5/8” paddle bit down the center of and added some finishing nails around the perimeter. For the knitting pick, or whatever the real name is, I used a nutpick that was handy. I couldn’t find the hunter green wool yarn I wanted, but this eggplant/aubergine/melanzana (whatever it’s called where you are) cotton yarn seemed to work well.

If I do these again, it’s tempting to actually learn to knit with needles. Failing that, I’d make a nicer spool knitter from larger diameter wood so that the nails aren’t so close to the edge (I was trying to get them close to an inch apart), and use nicer wood that can be sanded smoother so it doesn’t catch on the yarn. Or try one of the cranked versions. I still want to make a pair of hunter green garters.

Next DIY to finish will be my sgian dubh. I bought a blank blade from Atlanta Cutlery and am making a quick temporary handle for it out of what might be zebrawood (picked it up from a woodworking shop’s scrap bin) in time for next week. Permanent handle will be black bog oak that just now arrived in the mail.

3D0713BB-7E01-4B60-86DD-D82C8BAC3409.jpg