I have at last finished my Minecraft iPhone cosies. As with quite a lot of my knits I start off all enthusiastic at the initial creative bit. I have an idea, and then sit with my needles and wool, working out the best way to make it.
But then it gets to the checking bit. I knit some samples, but then I get insecure. So I think I had better knit a few more, just to check that there are no errors in the pattern or notes. So now I have a small pile of iPhone cosies.
I then get a bit worried about the photos. The natural light has been terrible today, so I am not totally happy, but it is done ....
In the end I decided to do just one size, so the cosy fits an iPhone, an iPod touch, and a mini smartphone. But there are three separate charts for creeper, zombie or skeleton versions. I am rather fond of the skeleton version myself.
My son is not convinced that there is much overlap between Minecraft fans and knitters.
I have been working all week on a pattern for a phone cosy. It is still a WIP, and is proving more difficult than I had imagined. I don't usually post until I have finished a pattern, but I am fairly confident I will get there with this one eventually.
My first step was to knit a plain phone cosy for my own phone, which is proving very useful. I watched one of my work colleagues
drop her phone and crack the screen yesterday. So this seems a great idea to
protect your phone from damage or scratches from keys and other things in your bag. Fine, but it is not very exciting.
My son is crazy for a game called Minecraft, and I thought this might be a good idea. Even quite small children at my school talk about Minecraft. As computer games go it is one I don't mind too much, as to me it seems a little like a 3-D screen version of lego. I should admit though I have played it, just looked over my son's shoulder from time to time. He seems to spend a lot of time building - very complex castles and airships etc. Some of the fun then seems to involved blowing them up afterwards. Not so great, but the building process does seem good to me. And a creeper, if you didn't know, is one of the more spooky characters in Minecraft.
Anyway I digress a bit from the knitting. I decided to knit him a creeper phone cosy. My first version had to be binned, as I tried to use 8 different shades of green. Much too complicated, and I just ended up with a tangle of wool. So this next version only has 4 colours. It is still not quite right, as a creeper's face should be square, but he is using it for his phone.
I then worked out how to make the creeper square, and think it is going to work out best to have a row of small creepers as they seem to keep their shape better. It is still quite confusing working with 4 strands, and I have found the best way not to get in a complete tangle is to work out exactly how much of the green shades of wool the knitter needs and cut this off before you start, and just work with these bits of wool.
So here is my first square creeper, and a row of some even smaller ones.
But phones come in different sizes, so I still have to decided what size or sizes I am going to design for. Just for once for this pattern I think I am going to have to be really accurate about gauge, and tension, and even perhaps recommend a wool. Nobody minds too much the size of a minibeast, but a phone cosy needs to fit.
