Free Pattern: Nook Cozy

 About seven months ago, I took a new job in an office downtown. Driving downtown is a pain, parking costs are painful, and my employer heavily subsidizes public transit fares. So it wasn't a hard decision to become a bus commuter. In fact, there was no question, really. I decided, though, that I probably deserved to get myself a "welcome to my new job" gift and picked a nook - after all, I was now going to have lots more reading time.

I was a little worried about scratching the screen, so I set to work knitting up a case. Which I love. So here, I'm sharing the pattern with you. If you have a Kindle or other e-reader, we can debate the merits later ... for now, know that this pattern is easy enough to adapt to fit any size you need!

Nook Cozy, by Adrienne Enriquez

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
6” x 8” (15.5 x 20.5cm)

MATERIALS AND NOTIONS
50gr/100 yds worsted weight yarn
(shown in Knit One Crochet Too, The Gourmet Collection, colorway Parfait Swirls)

One pair US Size 7 (4.5mm) needles

Size E (3.5mm) crochet hook

Small tab of hook-and-loop tape

Sewing needle& thread

2 decorative buttons

GAUGE
20sts and 40 rows = 4” in woven stitch

TECHNIQUES USED
Knit, purl, woven stitch (alternately called linen stitch), and single crochet

Pattern Notes: You may make your cozy bigger or smaller with a few easy modifications. To change the width, cast on fewer or more stitches but always an odd number. To alter the length, work as many repeats of Rows 1-14 as needed until your pieces is the desired size, then work Rows 11-14 once more before repeating and moving on to the Closure Tab.

Abbreviations:
sl - slip
RS - right side of work
WS - wrong side of work
wyib - with yarn in back
wyif - with yarn in front 

Woven stitch pattern:

RS: *K1, wyif sl1 as if to purl; repeat from * to last st, k1.
WS: P1, *p1, wyib sl1; repeat from *to last 2 sts, p2.                                                                    

Cast on 29 stitches.

Main Body of Cozy

Row 1-10: Work in Woven Stitch Patt, beginning with RS row.

Rows 11 and 13: Knit across.

Rows 12 and 14: Purl across.

Work Rows 1-14 four more times, then Rows 11-14 once more.

Repeat all rows within the Main Body once then proceed to Closure Tab.

Closure Tab

Row 1 (RS): Work in RS of woven stitch patt.

Row 2: P2tog, work in WS of woven stitch patt to last 2sts, p2tog.

Row 3: K2, work in RS of woven stitch patt to last 2 sts, k2.

Row 4: P2tog, p1, work in woven stitch patt to last 3 sts, p1, p2tog.

Repeat Rows 1-4.

Next Row: P2tog, work in woven stitch patt to last 2 sts, p2tog.

Bind off.

With wrong sides together, fold widthwise so that the fold line falls in the middle of the first section of 8 rows of stockinette.  Starting at the fold, single crochet through both layers across one edge.  Continue single crocheting around the flap.  When you reach the double layer again, single crochet the two layers together along the last edge.  Weave in ends and block if needed.

Block as needed.

Sew hook-and-loop tape on the inside of the flap for closure.  If desired, sew a button (or two) on the front of the flap for decoration.

Design Inspiration from the Internet

Okay, so maybe I was wrong the other day - maybe I really will be sharing some of these more whimsical things. But only when it makes sense. Only when it has some relevance to my designing/knitting. Only when it will give more insight into how my "design mind" works. If I see something that gives me an idea, and if I feel that idea simply can't be kept to myself, then I'll share it here.

Like this.

Airigami: The Fine Art of Balloon Sculpture by Larry Moss.

For those who'd rather not read the whole post I did, this short video gives a glimpse into what I saw and am now going crazy about:



First of all, I think this is kind of neat. I'm a teeny-tiny bit enthralled by the ideas
a) that someone would have the patience to put something like this together. And then I think about how much time knitting takes and I realize that knitting requires patience, too. So really, it's that
b) someone would create art that can't possibly have a shelf-life of more than a few days. Tops. Amazing!

Still, as I was admiring the work and marveling at the willingness of the artist, the thing that was really foremost in my mind was ...

"Huh. I wonder if I have the skill to design a knit object that mimics some of the great art of the world? Or maybe some of my favorite photographs?"

And now I've got even more design ideas bungling around my head. Which just makes me wonder if I'll ever have the time to knit the sweater I've been promising to myself for over a year?

Evolution of a Design (part 3): Beginner Texture or Intermediate Colorwork?

In each of my two previous baby afghans, I started out thinking of the design as a textured piece all knit in one solid color. I added the colorwork option after developing the initial idea. In fact, for Among the Bamboo I hadn't even thought about making it multicolored because I'd only tried intarsia once before, on a placemat that was felted, so it didn't matter quite as much how neat the back of the piece was.

 (Total side note: if you think you might like to try intarsia but are a little bit scared, I recommend the project I first tried. The pattern for Swirl Placemats is available in Felt It! by Maggie Pace. In addition to having this project, the book is a really good introduction to felting. And to show you how well they turn out even for the most novice colorwork knitter, here's a photo of mine, circa 2007. Sorry about the cut-off edges. I'm still not an expert photographer, but I'm willing to admit that's a pretty bad one!)

Ahem. And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

It was a tester who asked if she could try the panda blanket in color, and I figured I had nothing to lose so I said sure. And it was gorgeous! I fell in love almost immediately and knew I'd just have to suck it up, overcome my fear, and make a sample of my own. It was brilliant of her, really - the pattern had quickly become accessible to a wider range of knitters. In fact, it was almost like it was two patterns in one. What a deal! And who doesn't like a good deal?

When I started with the monkey design, I had a notion that it could be viable as a two-in-one pattern, but I hadn't fully committed to it. I designed the chart at the request of a tester who liked the textured option, and I didn't know that I'd take it any further than providing her with the Excel file.

The snail blanket is exactly the opposite. My mind's eye was showing me this blanket in color from the very beginning. As a result, it was color (not the telltale "•" used to designate "purl on WS/knit on RS" in knitting patterns) that I was using to create the actual chart on the computer.

As I looked at the picture forming in front of me, I realized that I needed to add some texture to this pattern. A sea of green stockinette stitch might work for the grass, but it would be terribly boring to knit. And clouds could be done in a different color than the background sky, but that just adds one more color of yarn and (more distastefully) a whole lot more ends to weave in. So I needed some texture in the grass, and the clouds could be done in relief, just like the panda and monkey of previous designs.

I started feeling kind of proud of myself - I'd now come up with a design that combined the two types of blankets I'd been making for a while. I was fairly certain that this one could stand alone as a colorwork-only pattern. And that left just the business of thinking about what colors I wanted to use!


Next up? Choosing colors...

Yarn on the Internet

I don't think I'll regularly post such things, but ... maybe this time it will give some insight into my thought process. As I watched this video, all I could think about was how unrealistic it seemed.  Watch. And tell me you don't have the same reaction:

Not because a ball of yarn obviously can't traverse the streets of Chicago on its own. No. It's unrealistic because that WHITE ball of yarn stayed clean and WHITE all the way until it hit the dye pot.

Of course, when it came out of the dye pot, all I could think was how that would be the perfect colorway for one of the designs bungling around in my head! So, you know. These designs are just all around me.

Evolution of a Design (part 2): The Image

We left off at the snail burrowing into my brain. I wasn't sure, though, exactly how I wanted my snail to look. My sister had offered to bring over her daughter's library book that had a remarkable number of snail photos in it, but in the age of the internet, I just went for a quick Google Image search instead. I actually sometimes prefer the Google route because it provides drawings as well as photos. Sometimes drawings (either realistic or caricatures) are more helpful for the baby designs ... even if you're going for cute-not-cutesy.

I probably spent 45 minutes looking through snail pictures before I had a clear sense of what I wanted my snail to look like. Once my mental image had solidified, I did a freehand drawing on plain white paper. I don't have that drawing anymore, but trust me - there were a lot of erasure marks as I struggled to get it just right. I have never called myself an artist.

With the drawing in hand, I printed out a piece of knitters graph paper that had the right number of squares in the right dimensions to give me the size of blanket I thought I wanted. (Truth be told, it wasn't a fancy knitter's graph paper - it was just an Excel file in which I'd manipulated the cells to be the correct size and then printed with the gridlines.)

Does this seem old school to you?  It kind of is.  And it gets even more so! Because I took my drawing and taped it to my living room window. Then I taped the graph paper on top of that and traced my snail on to the graph paper. I find the next step painstakingly tedious but necessary: using a pencil, I matched up the drawing with the squares on the graph paper, like so:

 

In this picture you can see the beginnings of my next step as well as my brainstorm. First, the next step - once I had the snail outlined, I transferred the design into Excel. The heavier marks you see in the picture are from me coloring in each box after I'd made the appropriate notation on the computer. Why yes, yes this does take a lot of time.  A. Whole. Lot.Of.Time. I've decided it's worth, it though.

And the brainstorm? See that baby up in the corner? I decided I couldn't resist making this a mama snail with a few babies trailing behind her. Cute, right? Of course, it added a new wrinkle - this blanket design was now going to be significantly wider than it would be tall. Which mean that grass and sky would be necessary:

So now I had some snails, some sky (in the form of clouds), and some grass (not pictured, but trust me - it's there).

Next up? A color scheme...

Evolution of a Design (part 1): The Idea

Part of what I'd like to do with this blog is take you through my thought process as I create new designs.  I won't be able to do that with every pattern, of course, but there are some for which I think it might be kind of interesting.

This first time around, it'll take several posts.  After that - well, we'll just have to see.

I've been on something of a baby blanket kick, and I've been especially interested in creating designs that are cute but not "cutesy."  They will totally work for a baby (or a toddler), but they don't scream "Hey! I'm all baby, all the time!" I'm not a parent, but I think that if I were, I'd be the one looking for the cute-not-cutesy gear.  I figure I can't be the only one, and someone's got to design the stuff, so it might as well be me, right?  Plus, I feel a bit like I've got the most fertile friends and family members around lately.  And gifts are always good to have on hand...

It all started when I decided to design a blanket for a friend who was pregnant with her first child.  I'd seen a scarf that used a bamboo stitch pattern, and I thought a panda sitting among the bamboo would make a great baby afghan. It turned out so well that I decided to publish it. One of my testers asked if I had any other designs of this type. By which I think she meant the cute-not-cutesy, jungle-animal-themed, blanket that could be knit as either a solid-color textured afghan, or in "full" color using the intarsia technique.  At that time, I didn't.  But I wasn't opposed to making more, and just her one question got me visualizing what a lion or monkey or giraffe or tiger scene could be.  She said her son was especially interested in a monkey, so I set to work making a chart especially for her son.

After that, I was all set to start on the giraffe (really - in my head, this thing is super cute!) when my older sister said, "Adrienne, I think you should do a snail."

And a funny thing happened - that snail set up residence in my brain.  I couldn't shake it.  That was it.  The giraffe quickly took a back seat to the mollusk, and there was nothing I could do about it.  Nothing.

Next up? Put the idea to paper...

Estimating Yardage Isn't My Forte

I've been working on the intarsia version of the Swingin' baby blanket, and I'm now thinking I'll need to order more yarn.  This is frustrating on many levels:

1. I already ordered more yarn once - 3 skeins (540 yds) more! - and I had thought I was being generous in that estimate.
2. Before I sent in the first re-order, I'd already decided to modify my sample from the original pattern, eliminating a whole 40 rows from the blanket!
3. The shipping is expensive, and since I'm not super-thrilled with the yarn, I don't want to order more than is necessary, even though that would reduce my per-skein cost for postage (something I actually do think about).
4. I'm nervous that this is just foreshadowing for my next project, a baby blanket for which I received yarn support based on my yardage estimates ... and what if I screwed those up this badly?  I can't very well go back to the yarn company and say, "oops!" can I?
5. And then there's the whole embarrassment factor.  I have a math degree and was a high school math teacher.  I have pretty good estimation skills.  But I seem to have a mental block for figuring these things out, and I really just don't understand why.

Thankfully, I have some test knitters who have been working on this project in a variety of yarn weights and so are able to provide their actual yardage counts.  I'm so grateful that I'll be able to use their work to provide accurate material requirements in the finished pattern.  I can't imagine how stressful it would be to publish a design without having had yardage calculated from a finished object ... not after this experience!

(Plus, I'm heartened by the fact that I'm not the only one who has this problem ... this blanket is going to my cousin for her soon-to-be-born baby.  She's also knitting an afghan, and she's also had to place three orders for yarn!  Maybe it's just going to be the way with this babe!)