Sheepish Bloom Drop

Airwhaler, using one of the flowers she crocheted, participated in the Sheepish Bloom Drop group yarn bomb.  She tied a note to the flower and attached it to the fence on a softball field.  The flower remained up for about two weeks, but when we went walked by it yesterday, it was gone.  Only the string that had attached it to the fence was left.

Airwhaler: Double Knitting

Along with crocheting, Airwhaler can also knit, and she does so occasionally.  She decided to learn how to double knit, but was surprised at how difficult it was.  According to her, "It's awful.  It looks really cool but is kind of miserable to make because each row takes twice the normal time.  But it's still fun in a horribly sick way."

So for anyone wanting to double knit, Airwhaler has warned you.

Airwhaler: Granny Bunting and Scarf

Following instructions from Attic24, Airwhaler crocheted a few granny bunting triangles.  She made six in total with varying designs and color schemes and sent all of them to England for Yarndale.

Airwhaler also made this scarf with knitting needles.  She did not follow any sort of pattern; the ends are simply sewed together to form a möbius strip.

Yarn iPhone Case: Finishing

After making the iPhone case base, I made the walls of the case, which is the last part of the case.  For the case I made, I included holes for inserting the headphones at the top and the charger area on the bottom.  One can also include holes for the volume controls on the side and the sleep button on the top, but those buttons are easy to press through the yarn, so I did not include gaps in the wall for those buttons.

Making the walls of the case is essentially making a border around the rectangle.  I used single crochet stitches around the border until I reached the spot where I wanted to include a gap for the headphones or the charger.  Depending on what way one goes around the rectangle, one will encounter either the headphones area or the charger area first.  For me, I encountered the headphone area first, but I used the same methods for the space for the charger.

To make the gap for the headphones, I crocheted the border until I reached the area for the headphones.  Then, I made 3 chain stitches in place of the single crochet stitches.

Chain stitches

The length of 3 chain stitches was enough for the headphones, and I connected the chain stitches to the rectangle by making a single crochet stitch.

Single crochet stitch

When I reached the place to insert the charger of the iPhone, I repeated the same process as for making a gap in the border for the headphones.

One border around the rectangle was not enough to keep the case on the iPhone, so I went around the border again.  This time, because I wanted the border to curl slightly inward, I made sure I crocheted with the inside of the case facing towards me.  It does not matter which way the first border was crocheted.

One time around

After I made the second border, I went around again, but not with single crochet stitches.  I just made a second chain around the second border to make it tighter.  I used this chain to tighten the corners by skipping a few stitches around the corner area to create a box shape.

Finished!

Back of case

I put the case on the iPhone, and it fit perfectly!  It was not loose at all, but I would have preferred for it to be a little smaller so it could stretch over the iPhone and be even more secure on the phone.

With iPhone

Perfect size gap for the camera

The yarn iPhone case is light, protective, and can be personalized any which way one wants.  The case will definitely look better with different colors and crazy designs and patterns!

Yarn iPhone Case: Making the Base

Inspired by my iPhone screen cover, I decided to make an iPhone case.  The version that I have to make a case for is the iPhone 4S, so if one has an iPhone 5 or some later version if one is reading this in the future, the measurements and methods may need to be tweaked a little.  This first part should remain the same regardless of what version the iPhone is.  The first step is to knit a rectangle up until the bottom of the camera area.  It does not matter what pattern the rectangle is, as long as it is the same wideness of the iPhone.  For my case, I used a simple knitting pattern, and with the size of my needles (7) and yarn I used, I used 14 stitches per row.

When my rectangle got to the height where it started to reach the camera region, I stopped knitting 5 stitches from the end to create a hole for the camera.

Starting to make camera hole

With the 5 stitches left, I cast each of them off with a crochet hook.  I left the last loop with the crochet hook still in it to hold it in place.

Beginning to cast off another stitch

Stitch cast off

Crochet hook in place

With the crochet hook keeping the stitch from coming loose, I knit with the 9 stitches I did not already cast off.  I knit a few rows until the height was equal to the height of the iPhone 4S.  When I cast off, I made sure that the last stitch I cast off was the one closest to the space I made for the camera.

Do not cast off if your stitches look like this!

After I cast off, I replaced the knitting needle with a crochet hook.

Use a crochet hook from here until the end

I made a few chain stitches until the length of the chain matched the length of the five stitches I cast off.

Chain made

To connect the chain I made with the bottom of the hole for the camera, I used a double crochet stitch to create a rough right angle with the chain.

Double stitch

The double crochet stitch was not enough to reach the stitches below, so I made a single crochet stitch and connected it with the stitch the crochet hook was holding below.  With this, I removed the second crochet hook, and the base of the yarn iPhone case was done!

Camera space completed

If the camera hole is a little big for the iPhone, as it was for me, just make single crochet stitches lining the inside of the space until the space is just right.

To see how to finish the case, go to the next post.

Yarn iPhone Screen Cover

Have you ever put your iPhone in your purse, bag, or backpack and when you take it back out, the screen is all scratched up?  The plastic case covering the back does not prevent any scratches, but I have made a simple iPhone screen cover to fix this problem.  While it is a little bulky, it protects the screen and is easy to use; it slips on right over the case.

I knitted a yarn rectangle whose width was a little wider than the iPhone and whose length was a little taller than the iPhone.  I made each stitch really tight.

The dimensions I used were 5.5" x 3.25"

The rectangle is flat, which by itself, will not stay on an iPhone.  To make the walls and create some depth to it, I crocheted a border around the edge of the rectangle.  The border was easy to make along the edges of the rectangle; all I did was a single crochet stitch along it.  However, once I got to the corners, I needed to fold the fabric to add dimension.

Stop a little before the corner

I did not crochet all the way to the corner.  Instead, I stopped a few stitches before the end and made the next stitch a few stitches away from the beginning of the next edge.  I made this stitch tight.

Use your needle to make a right triangle with the corner

Once I was finished making a border around the edges, I needed to connect the corners with the border.  The corners were rather unsightly.

Corners are sticking out

I used the hook I still had from crocheting the border to connect the corners and the border with basic loops.  I stuck the needle through the top of the corner, made a loop, pulled the needle back, and pulled the loop through the first loop, leaving one loop left again.  I repeated this process again to make another half-stitch connecting the same corner to the border.

In the process of connecting the corners

One corner connected

There was still some extra yarn from the knitting process on the other half of the case, so I used that yarn to connect the corners and the border on that side.  I created a loop with the yarn and repeated the same process as before.  For the other corner to the left, I weaved the yarn through to the other side since the yarn was not connected to the yarn ball and was easy to weave.

Another corner connected

Three corners connected

To finish the last corner, I returned to the side where I had finished the first corner.  I cut the string to an appropriate length, weaved it over to the other side, and connect the corner to the border.

Last corner about to be attached

Four corners finished!

After I finished attaching all the corners, I weaved in the ends of the yarn that were left on the case and cut the remaining ends.  I tried the case on the iPhone but it was a little big, and the edges did not reach over the sides of the iPhone, not allowing it to stay on.  To fix this problem, I crocheted another border on top of the already existing border.  After doing this, the case fit perfectly on the iPhone.

I crocheted around the corner two more times

On the iPhone

To make the cover even better, I would suggest starting with an even smaller rectangle, as this current iPhone screen cover is a little loose.  Still, this cover does an awesome job of protecting the iPhone screen in a bag, backpack, or purse.  The cover itself is flexible and can be stored in any position, not taking up a lot space in a bag.

Yarn Bombing 2013

International Yarn Bombing was on June 9, 2013, and my friends and I could not resist an opportunity to yarn bomb.  We did not want to have our creations taken down by school administrators, government officials, or police officers, so we yarn bombed a classroom in our school.  Even though we started late, we still managed to get 8 3" x 30" strips to cover 8 desk legs and a 3" x 48" strip to cover the horizontal bar on one desk.

One of the completed desks

The desk legs mainly consists of crochet strips, with the occasional knitted section.  Crocheting is generally faster than knitting, and because of time restraints, we relied mainly on crocheting to produce desk leg covers.  Each desk leg has a different crochet style.  For example, the leg closest to the camera, the blue and pink leg, is made up of crocodile stitches.  We also had popcorn stitches and regular crochet patterns.

The classroom also has a cardboard cutout of Elvis.  I, being the only knitter in my friend group, embarked on two projects: a scarf for Elvis and a knitted nameplate for the occupier of the classroom.  For the nameplate, I knitted a rectangle, and my friend embroidered the name on it.  For the scarf, I combined two strings, a pink and purple, to be one string and created a speckled pink and purple scarf for Elvis.  The scarf is five feet, the longest object I have ever knitted.

Elvis in his dashing new scarf

Yarn bombing is an activity that can never look bad.  Because of the ridiculousness of covering objects with sheets of yarn, any color combination and any style of knitting and crocheting look good together and bring spice to an otherwise boring classroom.