Jacquie's Journal

iPad Cover Knitting Pattern

This pattern incorporates a shadow knitted apple - almost as fascinating as the iPad itself.  Hold the cover vertically and it's just a plain old striped cover. 

  

Hold it at an angle - the flatter the better and wow!  There is an apple. 

Materials:

-About 100 yards of a light colored medium weight (3)  yarn (A).

-About 100 yards of a dark colored medium weight (3)  yarn (B).

-About 1 yard of waste yarn for provisional cast on.

-2 circular needles size 6 (US)

- crochet hook

- sewing up needle.

Measurements:

- 7.5 inches wide x 9 inches long.

Gauge:

20 st /4in in stocking/stockinette stitch.

Make a swatch in your chosen yarn to check gauge and adjust needle size to get the right gauge.

Row gauge isn't quite so important as you can just continue until it is the right length.

Directions:

Base rows:

With waste yarn, and one of the circular needles cast on 39 stitches.  This will be removed later.

With the light colored yarn (A),

Row 1: knit.

Row 2: With the 2nd circular needle pick up and knit the 38 color A bumps from the back of the provisional cast on row.  This picture shows the bumps in red (color A) against the green waste yarn.

You should now have 39 stitches on one needle - this will be the front, and 38 stitches on the 2nd needle - this will be the back.  These two rows form the base of the cover.

Body:

The body is knitted circularly on the two circular needles.  If you need help with this technique see this Cat Bordhi video from about 3 minutes in.  We have cast on a bit differently to get a closed end so we don't need to join the ends but the way the needles are used is the same.  The back 38 stitches stay on one needle and the front 39 stitches stay on the other.

The ridged stripe pattern is as follows:

Round 1: (B) knit

Round 2 (B) purl

Rounds 3,4 (A) knit

Knit rounds 1-4  a total of 5 times.

Apple motif: 

Keep the established 4 row pattern for the rest of the cover, but follow the chart for the apple motif centering it on the center front stitch (stitch 20).  The first round of each stripe is always all knit. The chart represents only the second round of each stripe.  The motif covers  23 stripes = 46 rows and starts and ends with a color B stripe. 

White rows are color A, colored rows are color B.  The dots are purls, the plain squares are knit.

Back Opening:

The back opening utilizes the buttonhole method in my last post.

There are some border rows on each side of the opening which have two functions (apart from looking pretty!) a) they help stop gaping, b) they stop the edge from curling.

Round 1: (color A) k the round, then wrap the yarn around the first stitch of the next round, turn the work and knit across the back 38 stitches. Wrap the yarn around the first stitch on the other needle, turn the work and knit back again across the back 38 stitches.

Round 2: (color A) unwrap the first stitch and knit the wrapping together with the first stitch.  Knit to last stitch on the front, unwrap the last stitch and knit the wrapping together with the last stitch. Purl across the back 38 stitches.

Round 3: (color B) knit the whole round.

Round 4: (color B) purl the front 39 stitches. Purl 2 back stitches, follow buttonhole instructions from the last post covering 34 stitches for the opening.

Rounds 5 and 6 - repeat Rounds 1 and 2 to make the edging rows for the other side of the opening.

Continue in stripes until the cover is 9 inches long after a slight stretch and ending with the second row of a (B) stripe.   Typically it will be 4 or 5 repeats of the 4 row pattern plus an extra B stripe.  If you have an iPad to hand now is a good time to try it on for fit .

Top:

With color A knit across the front stitches and then break yarn leaving about a 30 in tail.  Use the tail to graft the front to the back stitches to form the top of the cover.  Here is a video for kitchener stitch .  As we have 39 stitches on the front and 38 on the back the way you start and end the graft is slightly different.  Thread the tail onto the sewing up needle. 'Needle' unless otherwise specified refers to the sewing up needle from now on.

1) insert the needle into the first front stitch (colorA) as if to knit and pull the yarn through.

2) insert the needle into the first back stitch (color B) as if the purl, pull yarn through.

3) insert the needle into the first front stitch as if to purl, drop that stitch off its knitting needle, and insert the needle into the next stitch as if to knit, pull the yarn through.

4) insert the needle into the first back stitch as if to purl, drop the stitch off its knitting needle and then insert the needle through the next back stitch as if to purl, pull the yarn through.

5) repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is one stitch left on the back and  two on the front.

6) repeat step 3.

7) insert the needle into the first back stitch as if to purl, drop the stitch off its knitting needle.

8) insert the needle into the first front stitch as if to purl, drop that stitch off its knitting needle.

The graft should resemble a row of knitted stitches so it is important to ensure that the yarn is not pulled too tightly to maintain the gauge.

Finishing:

Sew in ends.  Amuse yourself by holding the cover at different angles and watching the apple appear and disappear. 

Resources:

For more patterns and an explanation of this shadow technique see Vivian Høxbro's Shadow Knitting book 

Terms and Conditions:
This pattern is for personal use only and may not be used for profit.  The apple depicted is actually a Fuji apple and any resemblance to the logo of Apple inc is entirely coincidental.

 

"My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life"

This week's S'n'B Calendar quote from Miles Davis, jazz musician and trumpeter (1926 - 1991).

It's 6.30 am and I have just got up to make sure everyone else is up and getting ready for where they have to be.  I wish I could say I have just woken up, but I have been awake since 4.00am - I guess you could say my future started a little earlier than usual today:-)

Ideas for the creative things I will do today were buzzing round my head, and would not leave me in peace.  I just hope I have remembered and written down the important ones.  The main thing that is occupying my mind is still my chart maker, and the ideas for features are still falling over themselves to get out of my head and into the laptop.  It will be a work in progress for quite a while, if I implement everything that has been suggested.  Programming is in many ways like knitting.  You have the basic building blocks - 1's and 0's like knits and purls, instructions and materials to put them together to make a finished product, the frustration because despite your careful calculations it doesn't always work first time, resulting in more calculations, a lot of trial and error, a bit more frustration, then finally triumph when it all comes together, looks good and fits well.  Time and patience are definitely required - like knitting you can only go so fast to produce each part to an acceptable standard.  Also like knitting is the temptation to do all the really interesting bits first instead of the donkey work parts which are unfortunately usually the really necessary parts.

I started my Pomatomus socks on Sunday night, but I must have been tired because I totally didn't read the instructions properly right from the get go and didn't do the right kind of ribbing.  I couldn't face starting again last night, in fact I didn't do any knitting yesterday, so still have that to look forward to.  Once I get going with them I know I will enjoy knitting them.

Under Attack!

My laptop got attacked by a virus and wouldn't run Internet Explorer any more.  Luckily for us it wasn't our only computer so while it's being sorted I can use another one.  I am not sure where it came from but it was very annoying.

Lucy is flying home from England today.  She should be flying over the Great Lakes about now.  We will be so excited to have her back, and I am sure Charlie will go crazy when she sees her.  She has been such a good little dog while Lucy has been away.

We haven't really been up to much lately - hence not much posting the last couple of days.  We did a little bit more the deck at the weekend.  We put the sealant on it.  We bought the biggest can (5 gallons) thinking it would not go far, but we only used about half a gallon if that.  We have enough to keep it sealed for forty five years!  We also found some redwood window boxes that we have attached to the front.  I will plant those up next year with trailing plants and maybe herbs so we get the lovely scent when we sit up there.  We are now on the look out for some bargain patio furniture to go on it.  We hope the Labor Day sales will be fruitful, otherwise there is good old www.overstock.com

In case anyone was wondering, Edward's goldfish is still with us, but still unnamed.  Perhaps I should run a competition to name him.  He seems to like his Fairly Odd Parents bowl, mainly I think because the plastic makes him look huge!

Thank you everyone who said such nice things about my Lotus Blossom Tank.  I have worn it a couple of times and it is very comfortable.  Apart from my linen bag, which I don't think will take me long, now that I am on the mesh part, I haven't any big projects planned at the moment.  I have my OSSP sock yarn, and my SSS silk to use, but haven't decided what patterns to make yet.  I might try the pomatomus socks from knitty  if the gauge is right.  I really like that stitch pattern.

I have been trying to make more stitch markers, but I am getting a little frustrated because I keep buying the wrong things.  They look right when I see them in the packet, but then they turn out not to be what I want on closer inspection.  I guess I am still in an early stage of learning process.  And being impatient I try to use what I have instead of going back to the store to get what I meant to get in the first place.  Maybe I will come up with something interesting that way - we'll have to see!

Two Things off My To-Do List

I am quite pleases with myself because I finally did two things that have been hanging over my head for ages but  just couldn't seem to get around to.  Neither was particularly challenging - but one involved filling in forms which I hate,  and the other parting with a large amount of cash.

The first was renewing Edward's and Sam's passports which expired last October.  We have to get them from the British Embassy in Washington DC and the forms can be downloaded from their website.  They will be getting the new style of passport with biometric information in, which means they have to send in a finger in a special ice pack (which is returned immediately to be sewn back on again) so that their fingerprints can be recorded.  Actually that bit wasn't true - I should have saved that up for April 1st!  These new passports contain a microchip that records facial measurements from the photograph.  What that means is that they are a lot more stringent about the size of the face in the picture.  We took our own pictures and Gary spent ages messing about with PhotoShop and stuff but the measurements on the screen just wouldn't match what was printed.  Then he discovered this marvellous package for $10.00 onthegosoft Passport Photo and the job was done in minutes.  Now we just have to get someone important to sign them to say it really is them, and we can get those in the mail.  I hate trusting important documents to the mail.  At least they have tracking now, and the Embassy use FedEx to return the new passports.

The other thing I did was register for my final course for my MSc (just the dissertation to go after this).  I am doing  Object Oriented analysis and design for business systems, which is basically what I was doing at work anyway, so should not be too difficult, though I hope I will learn some new stuff.  The course starts in May and the exam will be in October - I will get to mingle with other real students at the University of Utah to do that.  I had to ring up to book my course because I am an awkward customer - they don't usually offer the course in the USA but I started my studies before we came here so they let me continue, and I have to go through the same explanation every time.  They won't mail my stuff directly to me - I have to have a UK address and they forward it - at great expense - which is annoying as I have to pay extra for the course as it is.  Anyway that's all booked now and I am looking forward to having something "serious" to do with my time, which I sometimes feel is slipping uncontrollably away from me.

Knitting - I have printed out some knitter's graph paper from the link in the Knitting Resources list down there on the right - no a bit further - yep there, you got it.  And I have been doing some tessellating with a view to coming up with yet another design for my TKGA vest.  I have some cream, grey, and dark grey wool that I could use.  I don't have anything that is saying "I am the design of your dreams" to me yet, but I am working with hexagons which give nice possibilities with three colours.

Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible!

TypePad had a big problem yesterday with their data, and they promise they haven't lost my pictures etc that I have posted in the last couple of days.  They just need to restore them and hopefully they will be back soon.

I am going to try my hand at a poll soon.  I haven't decided what about yet because actually I am more interested in the mechanics of setting one up than the results.  I may have a poll to decide what to do a poll abut!

I have decided to make all the neighbours that we exchange gifts with Hello Dolly Bars.  I first had them at the coffee shop at Nordstroms when we first moved here and I thought they were just something they made.  Then I had them at Park City recently so I looked the recipe up on the internet and they are really easy to make and totally yummy.  They are basically all my favourite things - biscuit base, coconut, condensed milk, choc chips, pecans in one combination -what could better?

I have started on Dunkin's sweater and I am very pleased with it so far.  Should be finished tomorrow. 

Done most of the Christmas shopping now - just have to wait for the UPS, USPS, Royal Mail, and FedEx guys to do their thing - thanks, you all do a great job!