Tool Storage

With this weeks sweater looking a lot like it did on Monday, 

 I needed a little diversion.  So on my morning errand run, I looked for something I have needed for a while.

I needed a different nedles case.  Badly.  I had one, a small one that came with my interchangeables, but I quickly found I don't like to operate with some needles here, some needles there.  I put all my needles into one case. This stressed the case when I could close it, and with the addition of a crop* of 16 inch long circs, meant it wasn't ever going to close again.  I needed something else.

I wanted to stay with a binder.  I like the tidy way they close up, and I wanted to stay with pockets for the needles, pockets with a good sturdy closing.  I wanted to re-use the interchangable pockets.  The little pages with two and three slots work so well for the tips. 

With all the kids school things out, fall going back to school time is the time to look for alternative ways of storing things.    I came away with a binder case with nifty handles for 20 bucks.  

 It came with organizer pages for people going back to school.   Scrap paper!  I left a little in it for those on the road occasions where a little paper can't hurt.

But then I needed to come up with a good way to store the non interchangeable needles.  What on earth was cheap and had a good closure?  Ziplocs!

But Ziplocs don't come in nice tidy sizes, and they are not going to take a lot of wear and tear when you put holes through the ends for a three ring binder.  I tried to layer up the considerable part of the bag that I would not need, but it was messy and took up a lot of space in the rings of the binder.  

I used a heavy duty double zipper freezer bag, the 26.8 x 27.3 size.  (a fantastic size for project and yarn bags)  I cut off 4 inches from the bottom of the bag, leaving a really nice page size.  Fits perfectly into the binder.  Then, to keep it all together, I closed the end off with a flexible clear packing tape. Once that was done, I rooted around till I found a nice piece of card stock.  I cut a narrow strip for reinforcment and popped it into the bag, punched holes through bag and reinforcing cardboard, and voila, good sturdy pockets, made for very little cost.

I made one pocket for each of my most commonly used sizes. All the needles lengths could go in one bag.  I used one for the really small needles, and one for needles above 6 millimeters.  

It fits them all and still closes!  Now when I want to take the whole case along, I can, knowing that they will stay tidy and safe in one place.

We are off this weekend for the grand family camp out.  My mom, dad, sisters and maybe even my brother and various and assorted kids will all be there.  But mostly, this weekend is a ' buffalo tea' weekend without the buffalo.  I'm still not strong enough for buffalo!

*gratuitous farming reference alert.