Showing posts with label ds lite case. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ds lite case. Show all posts

November 18, 2007

Cabled DS Lite Case


People have been asking me for the pattern I used for my DS cases. It was my own pattern and I never really got around to writing it out until maybe a month ago. As I was figuring out what I did I decided I'd like to add a flap to the top as a closure to make sure the DS stayed in its lovely case. Sadly, I couldn't come up with one I loved so I'll just have to share the basic sock pattern for now. I don't think I'll have time to really develop a decent flap until after the holidays. Enjoy!

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Cabled DS Lite Case

Yarn: Malabrigo worsted
Needles: 4 DPNs in US 8
Gauge: ... umm.... ^_^

Key:
CF3: Slip next 3 sts onto cable needle purl wise and hold cable needle in front of work, K3, P1, K3 off the cable needle

Pattern Round
Needle 1: K2, P1, K3, P1, K3, P1
Needle 2: K2, P1, K3, P1, K3, P1, K2, P1
Needle 3: K3, P1, K3, P1, K2, P1, K3, P1, K3, P1
The condensed version: [K2, P1, (K3, P1)x2]x4

Cable Round
Needle 1: K2, P1, CF3, P1
Needle 2: K2, P1, CF3, P1, K2, P1
Needle 3: CF3, P1, K2, P1, CF3, P1
The condensed version: [K2, P1, (CF3, P1)x2]x4

The Pattern:
CO 44 stitches divide on to 3 DPNs
1st needle: 11 sts
2nd needle: 14 sts
3rd needle: 19 sts
The stitches are divided this way to allow for easier cabling. Feel free to divide the needles as you see appropriate.

Join into a circle and begin pattern:
Rounds 1 & 2: Pattern Round

Main cable pattern:
Rounds 3 - 8: Pattern Round
Round 9: Cable Round
Repeat rounds 3-9 four more times.

Round 38-43: Pattern Round
Round 44: Knit

Divide stitches evenly onto two needles and graft shut.
Weave in ends.

I find that if you turn your DS case completely inside out and pull out the grafted corners as far as they can go and then flip it right side out it'll leave you with nicely shaped corners.

A flap can be added by picking up stitches along the CO edge.


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The original green DS case I made actually had an even 3x1 ribbing. I found that it was too loose so I tightened up some areas and that's how I came up with the crazy 2x1, (3x1)2 ribbing.

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October 3, 2007

Pears


Just a few WIP's to share:


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That's Branching Out. It's still waiting to be blocked. I had planned to do it tonight, but, I'm feeling a bit lethargic, so, I'll save it for tomorrow. The whole time I was knitting it I had been stretching it out to see that the leaves were fully forming and that I wasn't making mistakes. Without being blocked, it looks pretty decent. I can't wait to see the finished-finished piece though.


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Another glimpse of my Coach knock-off. The colors have been growing on me. They remind me of this one ice cream I had. Like... 5 chocolate ice cream or something. It's surprisingly quite long and I'll only need a few more sections in order to complete it. I'm not looking forward to weaving in the ends though. There are a lot of them.


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This is my Hemlock Ring Blanket. I'm on row 70 and it's pretty big. The pattern is easy to follow for the most part, but, the endless rounds of plain stockinette are killing me. I haven't switched to brooklyntweed's chart yet. I understand how it works, but, this line-by-line thing is more comfortable for me. And once you do one repeat in the feather/fan section it's pretty easy to memorize.

I feel like I'm just not knitting fast enough. I've hired two friends "r" & "b" to help me out.


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r & b are two felt monkeys made by my friend (and knitting student prodigy) Danielle. She hand crafted them for my birthday. ^_^


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As you can see, they are quite busy. I have many more rows and endless rounds of stockinette to complete.

I'll leave you with one last image:


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That is the current prototype of my DS Lite case pattern. I'm not too fond of the flap so I may have to rethink it. And, originally I planned to use snaps with a non-functional button on top... but, I feel like the constant snapping may damage the DS. I ended up using EZ's after thought buttonhole. She actually asks you to snip a thread in your knitting and unravel it from the middle. It was a mess. Me + knitted items + scissors = disaster. o_O Hopefully I'll come up with a decent flap soon so I can share my pattern with everyone.

I'll need to hire more monkeys to help me with my Christmas knitting.
Knit hard!

April 11, 2007

make it clap?


It started snowing here last night. It made me a little angry, but, at the same time I realized my knitted scarves, hats, and hand warmers will get another week of use. We received about 3 inches out where I live. Three very slushy inches. And it's April.
If this pattern continues then Vanessa Williams will be right--sometimes the snow does come down in June. o_O Too cheesy? Sorry.
I remember a 4th of July as a kid. My cousins and I were running through the sprinkler in her front yard. It's hot and sunny, and, all of a sudden we get some cloud coverage and we hear thunder. It drizzles a little and we stay out only to be hit by hail 5 minutes later. They were about the size of throat lozenges. Good stuff.

Here are a few pictures of my Clapotis from last week. At this point in the pictures I think I dropped 5 stitches already; purposely of course. I think I'm finally happy with the choice of a solid color. The beautiful Clapoti (plural?) I've seen have been in really great variegated color ways and at first I felt like I might have made a bad choice, but, things are definitely looking better. Cascade 220 is some pretty good yarn.
I took the pictures while I was working on it at a local coffee place: Ravensheart.

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nice and sunny. but freezing


It was one of those days where it looked beautiful outside but the temperature was actually like 20 degrees.
When I was working Section 2 of Clapotis I had to break out all my larger sized stitch markers (the project calls for 18 in total). I had my original set from Zero made from beautiful olive green and light turquoise freshwater pearls. They went perfectly with the Clapotis. Sadly, I only had 7. However, I also had my glass bead set from Charles, but I only had 6 of them. I had to bust out with the cheap, thick, plastic Boye set. I used to think they were perfect for knitting since they were large and fit many needle sizes, but, once you start using them for smaller yarn and needles they leave gaps in your work because they're so thick. Of course, I decided to order another set from Zero. I ended up getting markers made of iolite stone and freshwater pearls. On a whim I bought a set of turquoise markers in a smaller size. =)

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charles' and zero's markers


Zero ships them out FAST. I received them in 3 days. ^_^
When I'm not working on Clapotis (which is rarely now 'cause I REALLY need to finish) I work on small quick projects. After making my original DS Lite case I decided I need a fancier one.Since the first was just plain stockinette I figured cables would be nice. I bought the Vogue Stitchionary Volume 1 (I LOVE IT) and I used the bamboo pattern from it to make the case. It was a really easy pattern to follow and I started changing it up a little to make the segments less uniform and brick like.

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I knit it using Malabrigo in the Lettuce color. Cute? I like it, sadly, it's way too large. I was thinking of felting it just a little to shrink it down a little, but, I'm scared. I might just have to make another one in a smaller, tighter size.

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Knit hard!

March 15, 2007

yarny


Sorry about the lack of updates!

Knitting has been slowing down a little over here. I've decided to stop knitting scarves since the weather is getting warmer. Scarves were such a huge part of my knitting repertoire that now I have nothing to knit.

In my last post I had finished the ski hat with ear flaps. The fit was a little weird and the knitted fabric ended up being really thin so I decided to try again. This time I double stranded the yarn and added a few size changes.


new prototype!


The flaps and the bottom inch and a half are ribbed. I double stranded Malabrigo (in Autumn Forest) and Rowan Yarns Silk Wool (leftover yarn from Odessa).
The middle section was Malabrigo and Wool Pak Yarnz (in Brownstone).
The top was just double stranded Malabrigo.
With all the changes the hat is now much thicker and much more fitted. I'm still not too happy with the ear flaps. No matter how much I adjust them to look more rounded instead of pointed the ribbing just pulls in and messes up the shape.

Because I had no idea what to knit I decided to try a pattern on-line for fingerless gloves. Knitty.com came out with their Spring 2007 issue and it had Dashing, a more male-friendly counterpart for their Fetching pattern.
I'm in love with Malabrigo and so I decided to use it for Dashing. The colorway I chose (Vaa) is a bit dark, and it's quite varigated so I paired it up with Catalina (a silk and wool blend). The Catalina was a solid lighter blue so I figured it would help balance the Malabrigo and help the cables visually pop out.


dashing!


Dashing turned out pretty well. I had spent a whole night swatching Malabrigo + other yarns and when I finally got to the Catalina I got lazy and decided to just go for it with a size 8 needle. The fit turned out alright but it ended up being about 2~ inches longer than the pattern stated (I even left a few rows out!).
It knit up fairly quickly and it doesn't take much yarn (only about half a skein of Malabrigo!).


modeled by my friend kevin


Isn't Kevin a great model? ^_^
He recently bought a Nintendo DS Lite. It's like the more current version of the Game Boy. He bought a case for it and was a bit disappointed because the case was very thin--not protective at all. So, he asked me to knit one for him.
I looked on-line for a pattern but the only nice one I found required some sort of Turkish Cast On using 2 24 inch circular needles in a size 8. I didn't have two... I didn't even have one... so I decided to create a pattern myself.


DS!


It's a pretty basic pattern. I just knit two separate rectangles and left them on the needles. I used the 3 needle bind-off to connect the bottoms and then I just seamed up the edges. The yarn is Carron Simply Soft. It's a REALLY soft acrylic but acrylic and I don't really get along. It just seemed to want to stick to my wooden needles. o_O But, I finished and I'm happy with the results.

@nikki: My first Odessa I used Rowan Yarns Cashsoft (142 yards) and it took less than one ball. The second Odessa I increased the pattern a bit (to fit my big head) and used Rowan Yarns Silk Wool which only has 96 yards and I ended up needing about 7 more yards from a second ball to finish.

That's my update for now! Hopefully I'll find more things to knit soon.