A few weeks ago when my local craft store was having their annual 50% off fabric sale, I bought enough faux fur and satin to make and line a pretty little faux fur cape. I had initially wanted to go with a clasp of a natural material, wood, bone, or horn, but couldn’t find anything right anywhere. So I decided I had to go with either fabric or metal, and as fabric would look very odd on the faux fur, I finally settled on a metal clasp. This metal clasp, to be precise, which I ordered yesterday morning.

I am not starting the project until I have all the pieces at my disposal… well, okay I may to the pinning and cutting, but no further than that until I have the clasp. I have everything else here, in a big plastic bag. waiting to be made, and I am pretty darn excited. I started making these about a year ago, and I have made a red one out of gaberdine with black faux fur trim and collar, a colour combination suggested by my fiancé which looks amazing, and a grey one out of wool flannel with white embroidery down the fron and on the lapels and back. If I had the chance to do that one over, I would have picked a different colour for the embroidery, maybe a nice grey silk thread, but I still like this one so very much.

Sewing and Knitting both have their pros and cons. For instance, sewing is more immediate, you get a final product in a much shorter time than you do with knitting. However, you will experience a lot more physical pain, with all the bending for pinning, cutting, and then the actual sewing! But with Knitting, you get to sit somewhere quite comfortably, but I take forever to finish anything.

With all this talk of capes, today’s knitting pattern is also going to be a cape! Novak from Berroco, in this case.

So, I have the faux fur and satin lining all ready to go, but what I need is a cloak clasp to use as a closure. When I asked my fiancé, he suggested that I get something made from a natural product, he suggested a wooden clasp of some sort. I loved the idea, and set about trying to find a nice wooden closure of some sort, but so far I haven’t been able to find a thing!

I have googled and googled, looked on Etsy, on ebay, and I can’t find any! I can’t believe that. I looked for horn and bone too, but still couldn’t find any. So that leaves me with metal ones. After much deliberation, and looking over website after website, I have decided to go with a lovely little pewter fox head. I have always liked this clasp, right from the moment I first saw it some time ago, and I think the colour would go really well with both the grey fur of my cape, and the pewter colour of the satin lining.

Now, just because it has been rather a pain to find these, here are four sites I found many a nice cloak clasp on… First is Crafty Celts, they have some lovely, if pricey stuff. Second is Twin Roses Designs, they just have an assortment of nice clasps that could be good for period pieces or things with modern flare. Third is Patterns of Time, who have a huge range, some of which is really great. Fourth is Cloak and Dagger Creations, who have some unique and pretty clasps.

Today’s knitting pattern is another super simple one, mainly because with this one you would get to pick out buttons, and I bet you that awesome wooden buttons would be heaps easier to find that cloak clasps!