Having practiced my DK on Blanket #10, I decided to use the technique to make a cell phone caddy for my hunny. All the ones we’ve been buying have either had bad clips that fell off his belt, or were loose enough to let the phone fall out. Not good.
The grey thread on the front is my mark for where to attach the button. The detail pics are fuzzier than I would have liked, but I wanted to get this posted. If anyone wants clearer pics let me know and I’ll see if I can get the camera to cooperate.
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Wool, Taupe, left over from the Link Gauntlets. The detail pics don’t really show the color correctly.
Needle: #3 circular (though straight would also work), crochet hook E for belt loop and optional crochet bind-off.
Gauge: 10 sts = 2″ double-knit (Note for myself: the test piece with #5 needled gave 9 sts = 2″, 13 rows = 2″, but I wanted a tighter fabric for weather resistance.)
Pattern: Cast on 10 sts.
Row 1: Inc in each stitch (20 sts).
Row 2: K1, sl 1, making sure to carry yarn in front of the slipped stitch, repeat to end.
Work in K1, sl 1 DK until the desired length is reached; I worked 30 rounds. Make sure you don’t accidentally perl instead of slip, or slip with the yarn behind, or you won’t be able to put the phone in the caddy :-).
Next row: Bind off 10 sts using a stretchy method (I used decrease-off), K10.
Flap: I was going to use stockinette stitch, but it (predictably) wanted to curl too much. Then I considered garter stitch, but I didn’t want the flap to stretch lengthwise when buttoned. The pattern I ended up with was: K1, P1, K1, K or P to make stockinette so the knit side will show when the flap is closed, K1, P1, K1.
Work the flap until the desired length is reached (it’s a good idea to test with the phone in the holder). Bind off; I used a double crochet bind off. To make a button loop, I bound off 5 sts, chained 3, then bound off the last 5 sts.
Now, it needs a loop for the belt. I made a couple of false starts here, figuring out what would work best, but ended up deciding on single crochet to have a loop with less stretch and (hopefully) more wear-resistance. This part may be imprecise — you’ll have to work some of the details out yourself, but I’ll try to explain well enough to duplicate what I did.
Belt loop: Attach the yarn two stitches in from the side, and pull up a loop. I always tried to loop under two bits of yarn, so that the stress is distributed. Ch1, pull up a loop between the next knitted stitch over, and then loop the yarn and pull through both loops on hook (basically, a single crochet). Repeat until you’ve done 7 sc. Ch1 and turn. Work in sc until the piece is long enough to go over your belt with a little bit of give (if it’s too snug it’ll wear out faster). Work a row of slip stitchs, drawing the loop under two threads between knitted stitches like you did to start the belt loop. end off and work the end in.
Now all that’s left is to find a suitable button and attach it. That shouldn’t require any particular instructions :-). Or, you can make a crochet button if you’d like. My Mom has a button box with a variety of interesting (and some vintage) buttons, so I got an old leather button from her.
Update: He’s already had a bit of trouble with the phone trying to slide out, but I think that moving the button down to make up for flap stretch should solve that.