I wanted to make a hat to wear with my coat in early spring. I was three-quarters finished with the hat when I decided that I really didn’t like how it was looking. The yarn just was not a good fit. I had yarn before that was a good fit and I made a hat with it. The problem was, I did not buy enough skeins to make a properly sized hat. I wore the hat anyway, but stopped after a family member’s frequent remarks about it looking like a baby’s hat.

As I took the new hat apart, in the back of my mind, I had thoughts of the yarn being a good match for something. I just couldn’t think of what it was. “Ah Hah!” I said to myself. “This could be a good match for the duvet cover I bought.” I put the yarn against the cover, still in its package. It was a nice blending of colors. I found a good fit!

My next thoughts were about how to display what I made with the yarn, so I could look at it everyday. I thought about making a pillow. I like how pillows enhance a bed. A few years before, I had a bunch of really nice pillows that I took off my bed every night and arranged on the bed every morning. Back then, I had a trunk to store my extraneous bed regalia. Not anymore. I thought about an afghan or blanket. “Those take a long time to make and I need to be sure to get the same lot number or it will look awful,” I said to myself. I failed to do this with an afghan I made more than 20 years ago. The afghan was warm and comforting, but not something I wanted to see often. It was then that I had the idea of creating a nightstand to display what I crocheted. That way I could see the crochet piece all the time, it could be made quickly, and I wouldn’t need to put it in storage every night.

I moved a few months ago and did not have nightstands since I was unable to fit them in my last bedroom. My search for nightstands that were desirable and in my price range was fruitless. This idea I had to put crochet work on a table seemed to be the best thing ever. I just needed to get’er done (my new motivating phrase). And so I did.

I created what I now call the Wross display bracket. The 3D printed display bracket connects 1 inch and 1/2 inch wood dowels that are readily available from home improvement stores. A cut piece of plywood secured to the top makes it a table. I used 1/2 inch thick plywood, 15 by 12 inches as the top to make the nightstand/table in the two photographs on the right. A crochet pattern I found a couple of years ago, My Picot – Simple & Textured #0014, was used to make the display piece on the first nightstand. The second nightstand is entirely Triple Picot V stitch. I fell in love with the stitch when I found it while searching New Stitch A Day’s Stitchionary. The yarn for both crochet pieces was I Love This Yarn, Sorbet Ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
-Douglas Adams

The brackets have gone through a few revisions. The last one (shown above) is available from my Shapeways Shop, 3D Homeward. This last version makes it easy to remove and replace display pieces.The display table in two photographs on the left was made using this version. The version immediately preceding the last version is available as a free file from Thingiverse. The photo collage below shows how I put the nightstand/table together.