I have been steadily cleaning out this disaster-area of an office, and finding things that are...well, fairly useless. Such as 5-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks that have information I've already either archived or have on my current computer. There are books for which I have copies in ebook form (Jane Austen books, many of which you can download free), and paperback books that are falling apart because they are literally over 30 years old and I have read them over and over again (and I hope, hope, hope that I can find them again in print or in ebook form). Then there are papers that are decades old that surely can be thrown out, and so on and so on. Or, there are old Windows 95 and other software manuals that are way, way out of date.
However, today I came upon this particular item. It's made of Gore-Tex-like material, about 9 inches by 5 1/2 inches when folded. The interior pockets are made of some kind of vinyl and are about 3 1/2 by 4 inches. I've had it for...probably almost 15 years.
I pulled it out of a pile of stuff that I had put on one of my bookshelves to look at "later," which obviously was about at least 10 years later. Yes, that's how long it's been sitting around. I opened it and when John popped his head around the corner of my office to see what I was doing, and I held it up. "Recognize this?"
He gazed at it for a second or so, puzzled. I said, "It's a holder for the 3 1/2 floppy disks for the old PC we used to have. I guess I should have thrown it out by now, right?" I said, laughing a little at how silly I'd been for holding onto it for so long...but stopped laughing as an idea slowly formed in my brain. "On the other hand...I think I won't because I might be able to use it. I could use it to--"
"Store knitting needles!" John said.
"Yes!" I said, much pleased at his perspicacity. "Exactly--circular needles, in fact!"
The top pockets are too shallow to hold the needles without sticking out, but they're just the right size to hold a small pair of scissors, especially if you pass the velcro strap through one of the finger loops. The clear plastic holder to the left, which normally would hold a business card, is perfect for holding a cable needle without too much worry that it'll fall out, since the opening is up against the fold of the holder. It would easily slip into any purse or knitting bag without having the cables get tangled up, especially since the velcro strap holds them down. Here's what it looks like with needles and accessories in it:
Just to test how secure the items were within it, I closed it and shook it (the horizontal velcro pieces on either side are "opposites" so that it stays shut when closed). Then just to be absolutely sure, I opened it and shook it upside down.
Nothing budged! How cool is that?
So now I have a handy-dandy circular knitting needle holder for whatever knitting project I might want to take with me when I'm on the go. Now I'm thinking about looking for more floppy disk holders like this for more of my needles. Each pocket can be easily labeled as to the size, and and another label on the outside saying what all sizes are within. The holder is about the height and width of a trade paperback book, so I can put it in my bookshelf if I want to, and the spine--though thin--is wide enough to put yet another label on if I want to see what sizes are within if I do put it in a bookshelf.
Wow. I absolutely must see if I can find more of these! If I recall correctly, it wasn't very expensive when I bought it. However, if I can't find any of these, I bet CD holders would work about as well, and at low cost, too. I found one here in Amazon. Less than $10!
However, I like the slim line of the 3.5 floppy disk holder, since it's very easy to tuck in a purse, unlike the bulkier CD holders.
I feel so frugal and resourceful! :-)
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