A Cozy Sweater for my Laptop...

In 2010 I was given a brand-new computer for Xmas... it was a lovely surprise (my husband Deep is notoriously terrible at keeping surprises, so I was really impressed!), especially since it was a super tiny computer that had just come out (the 11 in Macbook Air), which is similar in size to a Netbook, but a full computer. Since I do lots of travelling and my volunteer work often involves meetings etc, having a REALLY light, super-portable computer was a major plus for me. In fact, it still is a major plus - I still love this computer to death, and I'm using it right now to write this post!

I was really excited to use it lots and take it everywhere.... but then I realized that I didn't have a case for it. In fact, almost no stores had a case for it yet! Sure there were lots of cases for larger computers (obviously too big), and there were cases for netbooks (the wrong dimensions, my computer is longer and narrower), so unless I wanted to shell out the big bucks for one at the Apple store, I was going to have to order one online (and wait weeks for it to arrive), or wait months for them to show up in various different stores for a decent price.

Or of course, I could make one! (duh!)

I'd seen plenty of patterns for knitted phone or ipod cases/sleeves (sometimes called ipod socks), etc - it couldn't be that hard to make a crocheted or knitted laptop case, right?

So I started googling, and found this awesome blog by another crafter, who made these cool three-toned laptop cases, and offered a pattern. Well ok it was a description of a general method for making these sleeves, rather than a pattern exactly, but I gave it a try - with my own modifications of course, and I loved it!

Here is the purple sleeve I made for my laptop - the one that started it all:

For this one I used 3 strands as suggested in the pattern I had found, a dark blue, and two shades of purple (purple is my favourite colour, as you'll soon learn). The three strands not only gave it a neat variegated effect, it also meant that the case was thicker and softer - more padding to protect my shiny new laptop. I used a really big hook (11mm or 11.5mm I think) with this thick three-strand yarn, so it worked up really quickly. I used some jumbo snaps to close the flap, and finished off the edge with the darker purple yarn, and voila!

It started out quite snug, but over the last 1.5 years it has stretched out quite a bit, so when I've made other cases, I have adjusted my pattern a bit to make it more snug to start.

It's still going strong almost 2 years later - I still use it most of the time. There are some times when I need it to be really slim, and so I have a neoprene sleeve (ordered online) that I use then, but most of the time I much prefer my fun purple crocheted sleeve, plus it keeps my computer more protected, as we found out last winter...

Once I started using this case, I started getting requests from others to make one for them - but that's a story for another post.

Keep crafting!


Update: You can find this item on my Etsy Store