Wonderful solution, I had to do something similar to the metallic legs of a little table that I put on my sofa, and could scratch and rip the leather, but I did it with crochet.
The color of your handles now are stunnig! You wont lose them easily!!
Congratulations and regards!!
Nice solution to a tricky problem. Hope you're not getting any more reaction. It's always a bummer when you have to stop doing a craft because your body somehow objects to what you are doing.