My new KnitPicks needles are working out great. Now I just have to keep them organized.

My other circular needles are in one of those large soft-sided fishing tackle cases.  It works well but has been bulging at the seams for some time now. It’s way too bulky to take to classes and I’m not so crazy about the fishing logo on the front. Clearly these new needles need another home.

I like the binder idea that KnitPicks uses for their case but didn’t buy the cover. I was hoping that I could just buy some of the needle pockets to use with my old day planner.  Turns out that the needle pockets are much smaller than my old day planner and have six oddly spaced holes. After visiting an office supply store and comparing the needle pockets with other planners I soon found that the hole configuration will fit binder mechanisms with six rings but that planners using these types of rings are not wide enough to hold the needle pockets.

Not daunted by this, I headed over to a local thrift shop and sifted through the mounds of unwanted planners and binders. After a few minutes I found one with rings in good shape and the right price – $.69. When I got home I tore the binder mechanism out of the planner and started thinking about how to make a cover and secure the mechanism to the cover.

I quickly recalled finding a nifty binders called Rebinder that is made so that the cover can be easily replaced. Hoping to use this same idea to fasten my binder mechanism to a cover, I looked closely at the parts and headed over to the hardware store. 

Here’s what I found. The nuts are called t-nuts, tee nuts or blind  nuts. They either have prongs that will dig into the item being secured or without prongs but with small holes for brads. My Rebinder has the one with the prongs which dig into the cardboard cover to hold it securely.  These t-nuts come in various sizes. The ones that fit into the holes on my binder mechanism are 6-32. The screws that fit into the holes of the t-nuts are 6-32 x 3/8 machine screws with an oval head for Phillips screw drivers.

Now that I have binder rings and a way to fasten it to a cover, I just have to design and make the cover. Not sure what I’ll do. There are so many possibilities.

In the mean time, I’m still working on Firebirds.

Progress is a bit slow since I’m trying to make sure all my stitches are even. Parts of the chart have long gaps between color changes, which I think makes it harder to be consistent. I’m trying to remember to weave in unused yarn when knitting through such gaps, hoping this will help.