Right! After a few dozen of these, I heard from someone else who tried them, and I have a couple of great hints to pass along.

1. Washer felting won’t always do it. Stuff your caps with saran wrap to keep the insides from felting together, then hand-felt these under running hot water. Much better result!

2. And I’m really annoyed with myself for not thinking of it -- find a button that will fit snuggly inside your endcaps, and sew it to the inside. This will give you nice hard ends, keep those needles from popping out. The buttons on the end are nice, but are more decorative. Buttons or even a bit of saran wrap inside will keep the needles from poking.