Shortly after I made the crocheted laptop sleeve for myself (see the previous post), I started getting compliments on it, and even a few requests.
My aunt saw my case while we were visiting them in the early spring of 2011, and I offered to make one for her laptop if she'd like. She seemed tickled pink by the idea, so I made a note of the size and model of her laptop, and took her requests for colours - Teal and Grey/Silver.
I tracked down some yarns in the right colours (sometimes it's really hard to find the right shade of silver/grey yarn - have you noticed the same thing?) and got to work right away... and then got side-tracked. I'll come back to this project in a moment....
One of the things that side-tracked me was the idea of making a case like this as a surprise gift for my really good friend who we'd recently moved far away from. {Ok, since I'll probably mention this friend a few times throughout my blog, let's give her a code name now... let's go with Jennifer.} She loves the colour orange, and I had this ball of really unique variegated orange yarn that I had set aside to use for a gift for her. So I decided to use it as one of the 3 strands in a case for her laptop. Unfortunately this turned out to be an ill-fated project...
I got some orange solid-colour yarn to compliment the variegated stuff, and some yellow and some pink as possible other combinations, since the special yarn included both yellow and pink highlights. I selected one of them (I don't remember which...), and started working. When I started, I asked Deep "Jennifer has exactly the same laptop as you, right?" and he said "Yes" - so I started working on the case, using his 13 inch Macbook Pro as a guide (can you see where this is going...?).
One evening a week or two later I was working on this case and was maybe 3/4 done, while my brother-in-law and in-laws were over for the evening. My brother in law has the same laptop, so at one point I asked to borrow it to check the sizing, thinking I could finish it and send it by the next day. At this point Deep says casually "You know Jennifer's computer is the 15 inch, right?" (apparently when I had asked if they had the same laptop, he had thought I meant the same type, not the same size). My heart stopped.
I cursed and fumed for a few minutes, feeling like an idiot for not being more careful when I started (or for asking more specific questions)... then went and looked up the dimensions of the 15 inch laptop online and concluded that there was no way on earth this case would be able to stretch that much. And I started to pull it out. My father in law said something about how much he liked pulling things out, and I handed it over to him. At least I didn't have to pull out all that work myself... so I tried to ignore the gleeful expression on his face as he did it. Then I rolled the 3-strand "yarn" (since for this pattern you work with 3 strands as if they were one) into a big ball so I could begin again.
I started over, this time adjusting the pattern to make it large enough for a 15 inch laptop. I got maybe halfway through the significantly larger case, and realized that I was definitely going to run out of that ball of special yarn. I searched everywhere for that yarn again - the original ball was from my mother-in-law's yarn stash, so I have no idea where it came from - or for something that would be similar enough to be able to substitute. But I had no luck. So I pulled it out all over again. This time though, I had to untangle the triple yarn into the 3 colours, since I had to switch out another strand for the original special yarn I was intending to use for this project. A friend and I spent an entire evening pulling it out a bit at a time and untangling the 3 yarns and rolling them each into a neat ball.
Finally it was time to start over, for the 3rd and hopefully last time. I decided to just use the orange, yellow, and pink solid yarns. I would save that ball of special yarn for another project, another time. By this time Jennifer's birthday was approaching quickly, so I decided that it was too late to have this be a random out-of-the-blue "Thinking of you" kind of present, and that I would make it a birthday present instead. Her friend was planning a surprise birthday party for her, so I arranged that I would mail the case to another friend, so that she could give it to Jennifer at the surprise party. I scrambled to get it finished in time, and paid the procrastination tax of expensive shipping to get it there in time. Just before I sent it, I wanted to double check that it would actually fit, so I walked into a nearby electronics store, and tried it out on one of the floor models when none of the sales people were looking.
The surprise party worked out well, and Jennifer was very pleased with the case. Here's a couple of pictures of it:
She uses it all the time. And, as it turns out, last year it actually saved her computer - when she slipped on some icy steps and her backpack went flying, and fell so hard onto the pavement she was sure her computer was toast. But luckily it was in its cozy case, and it ended up having only minor dings - but it still worked just fine. I think that's pretty good testimonial for these cases, if I do say so myself. I'm glad all that trouble in making it paid off in the end, with a well-loved and apparently very useful gift!
Back to the case I was making for my Aunt. When the ill-fated project was finally finished, I eventually got back around to finishing the case for my aunt. A friend had the same model laptop as my aunt, so i tested the size on his when he came over for dinner one evening. I had intended to mail it to her, but instead I ended up bringing it to her in person when we went to visit the family cottage that summer. Here's how it turned out. I quite like the colours - the teal really stands out nicely against the silver and charcoal. Very sophisticated I think.
Then last Christmas I decided to make cases for my parents too - a green and blue one for my Mum's new-to-her 13 inch Macbook Air (so a larger version of mine), and a brown and grey case for my dad's iPad. By this time I realized that the cases tend to stretch out a fair bit over time, so I made their cases quite a bit tighter. Again I went to Future Shop to try out the cases. This time I told the sales guys what I was doing, a bit sheepishly "I made this for my Mom for Christmas and I want to make sure it will fit - is it ok if I try it on here?" - they were actually really friendly and helpful about it and were quite impressed that I had made it myself. It was trickier to try on the iPad, since the locking mechanism on the iPads in the store is on the back, instead of at one end, but I could at least try it on the bottom third or so, so I knew it would go on - but there was no doubt it would be snug!
I wasn't able to go home for the holidays last year, so we opened presents with my parents over video-conference at my in-laws place. The cases fit! Later my dad said that he'd gotten a few comments on his nice hand-made iPad case from store clerks etc., and he's always very proud to say his daughter made it for him. :) And yes, thankfully they did stretch out enough to make them a little easier to use!
A few months ago a friend of mine who was on a volunteer board with me got a new iPad, and he loved it and brought it to meetings with him and everything. But then I saw then he was carrying it around in the box that it had come in. I asked him about this and he said he didn't want it to get damaged, and he didn't have a case for it yet. So of course I made him a blue case for it that weekend, so he could start enjoying the portability of his new device. He must have thought my original offer wasn't serious, because he was very surprised when I showed up with it at our next meeting.
And finally, when Deep got a new computer (he had managed to drive over his old one with our car, so the screen was all cracked, but miraculously it still worked for a few months until the new model that he wanted came out), he asked me to make him a crocheted sleeve for it. I generally don't offer to make him crocheted things very often, since he has a particular sense of style and I don't want to end up with a situation where I work really hard on something that he won't really like but he will feel guilty enough to use it occasionally. So I was pleasantly surprised when he asked for this, and made this nice blue and grey case, which he does actually use all the time:
So, long story short, I've made quite a few of these cases, in pretty well every size and colour you can think of. I've also taught a couple of friends the pattern so they have made cases for themselves. They definitely seem to be a hit!
I've been thinking that I may open an Etsy store soon, to sell these custom-made cases, since there does seem to be some demand for them. I guess we'll see how that goes!
Keep crafting!
