Easy peasy. Since this bookcover is already quilted and padded, it longer to crochet the cord and button than it did to sew a few needle slots into the two cover pockets. I have 2 sets of 5-inch interchangeable needles with cords and stoppers in the pink case.
Best, the keeper key is tied to the pagemarker ribbon -- handy, easy to use, and never lost.
If you are a member of Ravelry, more pictures, measurements and hints can be found on my project page: Shearling's 2012 Interchangeable Needle Case Hack (below):
✔ When DD opened this present on Christmas morning, I exclaimed, “85 hearts!” … thanks to Ravelers everywhere !!! But when she put her new Sunburst needles into it, there was no pocket for Size 11. When prototype was made, forgot that my 11s where in a WIP in back of closet and didn’t make a pocket. My bad. :-(
Made this quickie case from a Vera Bradley paperback book cover found at Barnes & Noble (and sometimes on a popular internet auction site.) It was already padded and quilted. I sewed little pockets in the big pockets where the covers of the book are tucked, and then added numbers plus a crochet chain and button. That’s it.
You can see it holds 2 sets of interchangeables (4-10.5) with an extra wide pocket for a full range of cables and stoppers -- you can see a cable peeking from the unnumbered pocket. When the “book” is closed, the needles are secure.
Best, the key that tightens the needles to the cable is tied to the pink pagekeeper ribbon, handy to use and hard to lose.
And just how fast is this project? It takes longer to crochet the cord and button than it does to stitch the pockets!
♦ The book flap pockets are roughly 7-1/2 inches wide. I sewed needle pockets, starting with size 4, at 1-3/8”, 2-3/8”, 3-1/2”, 4-5/8”, and 6-1/8 inches. The other side: Cord pocket at 4”, and second stitch line at 5-3/4”. This configuration holds a mix of Knitpick Harmony and Knitter’s Pride Dreamz, plus a set of Knitpick Sunstrucks.
♦ Add crochet chain and button to the front to keep the case closed and the needles safe (pink prototype).
♦ In the pink prototype, I unstitched the flap one side and added stitching for six pockets, then stitched the flap back down -- the pocket stitches did not show on the cover of the book. On the second side, with the three bigger pockets, I just stitched two short pocket separating lines -- shows hardly at all on the front outside as you can see, but keeps needles and cords separated, -- so very easy, plus quite neat when you match color of sewing thread to quilting on the book cover.
♦ Blue needle case will be gift for DD. I’m doing the easier show-on-the-front short seams for the needle pockets, and the white plastic measuring tape will make very neat sizing numbers. I might even make a personal label to mark the case with her name.
No time for label. Those little white dots in image are our FIRST SNOW.
♦ Last image is of the two new cases and the old plastic case that came with the Harmony needles. I still use big, stiff plastic case to hold tins of stitch markers, etc.
