Flat and Cozy Cellphone Cozy

Flat and Cozy Cellphone Cozy

This is a flat knit cellphone cozy! I was looking for a good cellphone cozy pattern one day and didn't want anything that had to be knit in the round. I couldn't find anything I liked so I improvised and came up with this simple knit. This is knit in one piece that folds naturally in the center due to the composition of the pattern. The selvage is sewn up to create the cozy pocket. The strap can be done a number of ways. I'll include a few suggestions toward the end.

Needles:

8US (I used Bamboo.)

Yarn or Tapestry Needle

Yarn Used:

Lion Brand Homespun for my own and a friend's (both pictured).

I've done it with cotton, though, as well. The project is much less fuzzy and more neat and clean this way. I also recommend sewing it up with the wrong side out with cotton, because the bumpiness looks nicer with the sleeker, more sporty looking, outcome.

Gauge:

Not important. --You know what you knit the most comfortably and you'll be using your own phone to determine size of project, as it is, so don't sweat it. :)

Finished dimensions will depend on your own phone, as you will see. Have it handy when you start, you'll need it!

Casting on:

Create slipknot for first stitch and cast on two more stitches after it (so you have three loops on your needle.)

Now cast on until you have cast on sufficient loops to go across the bottom of your phone when you spread them out evenly and hold it up your phone up to your needle.

Cast on three more stitches.

There will be some flexibility and extra space, so don't stress over the measurement, just make sure that your phone fits between the first three loops and the last three, as these will be your selvage and the sewn up sides of your cozy.

Pattern:

Row 1: k3, *k, sl3 p-wise wyif

Row 2: k3, *p, sl3 p-wise wyif

Repeat until you can hold your knitting to your phone and it reaches the top (or as close to the top as you want the cozy to end if you want your phone to stick out some).

The next bit of knitting will be the bottom of the cozy and will cause the project to want to fold in on itself nicely.

(If you want to use the “wrong side” as the outside of your phone purl here instead and begin the next side with a purl as well.)

Row W: k across

Row X: k across

Row Y: k across

Row Z: k across

Now your pick back up the previous pattern to come up the other side.

Row 1b: k3, *k, sl3 p-wise wyif

Row 2b: k3, *p, sl3 p-wise wyif

Continue until this side is the length of the side before the “fold” section. The project should be wanting to fold and create the bottom on either side of the garter bit.

Bind off. (Bind off to last three stitches if using Strap Option: I-Cord Variant, and knit your cord now before continuing. For all other Strap Options, go ahead and bind off all stiches.)

Fold and make sure your phone fits.

Sew up the sides, keeping your stitches within the selvage, or just inside if your phone still fits and you prefer the aesthetic.

Tada!

Strap Options:

I-Cord Variant:

This works well with the fuzziness of the Homespun yarn.

Simply knit the three stitches left on your needle after you bind off then wrap the yarn around the stitches once so it's back ready to knit and knit them again. This will create a pretty wrapping pattern that looks good with a fuzzy yarn. Make this as long as you like then bind off and fold over to make the strap loop. You could even make a full “purse-like” cord if you'd like.

I-Cord:

I have never used I-Cord only because I don't own double-pointed needles. It would be a perfectly viable option to sew into the top of this project after binding off. I would suggest sewing in the cord before sewing the sides of the projects together so it looks like a more integral part of the design.

Braid:

For my husband's cotton version (which I would love to include pictures, but of course he lost it XD), I simply braided some of the cotton yarn together and sewed it on to each side of the piece about a quarter of an inch down the side to make a little strap.

Cord and Strap options are truly endless for this, so feel free to be creative! :)

This is a quick knit and very gratifying because it's so immediately useful. Makes a great gift if you're a beginning knitter or just don't have a lot of time. I hope you've enjoyed this pattern. 

Making and Doing

Making: I've been working on growing my crochet toolbox lately. When I got a little burnt out on Tunisian, I taught myself to make granny squares and work in the round using various internet sources. I made a cute little sugar skull with some red cotton the other day that's just waiting for some eyes. I might try to size it up a little and make some wash clothes for my bathroom. I've been slowly redecorating my bathroom in skulls  and skeletons and I think that would be a nice touch. When I mentioned the idea to the spousey person, they suggested sizing it up even larger and making a bath mat or rug! I think that's a great idea and I think I could make it happen with some chunky cord or rope, or maybe even some recycled fabric. Currently, I'm working on a hat for the spousey. It's probably not even going to get cold enough to need it much more this year, but that's ok. They'll have if for next year. This is my first time attempting an entire hat in the round.  So far, so good!

The top of a hat!

I'm slowly starting to make progress on a large jewelry order my aunt put in for this summer. She's approved the prototype so now to get to cranking out product. I've been extremely concerned with keeping costs down while creating pieces that really stand out, and had been hugely concerned about the sheer amount of beads the project is going to take. I was, until I received a package in the mail from a dear friend who used to run a wonderful little shop here in town. She moved out of state and those of us who thought of her shop as home miss her dearly. She sent me the package as part of a "pay it forward" post on FB that involved sending people a random package some time over the course of the year. Her random gift to me was BEADS. No more worries about keeping the budget sensible on this order. I could not feel more blessed. Thank you, Universe. I needed that.

Doing: I've been keeping a Tarot Journal. I used the book Tarot Journaling by Corrine Kenner as a jumping off point. The book isn't quite what I thought it would be, but it's proved useful in getting the project off the ground. Tarot is an extremely useful tool for thinking about things in ways you might not otherwise and seeing situations from other perspectives. Whether you believe the source of the insight is divine, stems from the subconscious, or is all just random happenstance, doesn't actually matter. All the cards are there to do is introduce new ideas into your thought process and even if they are completely random and have no kind of mystical properties whatsoever, that can be an extremely useful tool when working through a difficult problem or experiencing a blocked thought pattern.

I've been using the Diaro app for Android and it's been extremely useful for keeping the project organized.  It lets me include photos in my entries, which is extremely handy for future referencing and so I don't have to try and transcribe blocks of texts from various reference books. I've been using the app for a while for my personal, private, journaling and to draft posts for other places. I'm using it right now to write to this post, as a matter of fact, after the lack of auto save in the Blogger app forced me to start all over from a much earlier version. I haven't used the website so I can't attest to its online presence, but the app itself it just wonerful.

Still using HabitRPG. I've created some useful habits and have learned a lot about how and why I do things by using it. Recently, I've joined a guild called "Challenge... Accepted?" and that's introduced me to some new things and encouraged me to do and try some things I wouldn't have, otherwise. All of the projects I've talked about in this entry are things that I log on the site in one way or another. I get points for crafting every day and more if I finish a project or meet one of my goals. I'll get points for writing and posting this blog post!  I am extremely grateful for being introduced to the site. It's a wonderful resource and I really can't talk it up enough. 

Time to close this post to go make and do other things (the dishes to start!) I'll leave you with the little skull still waiting for his button eyes.

Almost Sugar Skull

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response

Story time! 
Once upon a time I went to a Transiberian Orchestra concert with my then roommate. It was amazing. It was the kind of amazing that was kind of spiritual and kept sending intense chills through my body. This intense sensation would wash over in me waves from time to time as I was listening when some chord or chorus particularly spoke to me on deeper level. After a while I noticed that every time I felt this intense sensation my roommate sitting next to me would shiver. I asked her what was wrong and she said she kept getting a cold draft. She thought she was sitting over a vent. I paid attention the next couple times it happened and the correlation became clear. Every time the intensity of the experience would wash over me, my roommate next to me would feel the energy washing through me as a cold sensation coming from my direction. I was the draft. It seems like a crazy story, but the correlation was very real.
Last week I learned about ASMR: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and that story instantly came to mind. I think what I was experiencing is similar, but this is a different thing, too. Do you get chills in the back of your head when someone brushes your hair or when you run your hands through a bowl of sand of a bag of rice? This is that. And there is an entire community around it on youtube and around the internet. Some of the videos are simple "trigger videos" of people brushing things on the microphone to cause that sensation in you, the viewer, or running their hands over different textures and whispering a story. Whispering is a big trigger for a lot of people, so it's a huge part of the community. Even if you don't experience what some refer to a "braingasm," the effect can be extremely relaxing. 
There are also videos, like the one I present to you here, that provide a kind of psychological release, as well. The video below is by a woman who refers to herself as Heather Feather. In the video she plays the role of a kind of brain maintenance professional and throughout the course of the video she unlocks compartments of your brain and cleans out the negative things she finds there such as guilt which she brushes away and negative thoughts she clips out. The video is binaural and much of the experience's magic is listening to it through headphones. She moves around various parts of your mind and you hear her in different areas as she's working. The video is for sleep and relaxation. I was awake until almost the very last moment, but so completely relaxed and in a wonderful state. The sleep I got afterwards was amazing.
I haven't listened to a lot of other vides, but on a site called ASMR Hub there is a lot of variety. I tried out a short Chakra Opening video that was nice and there are some MP3s with guided meditations and things. Every video isn't for every person and the whole concept isn't for everyone either, but if it seems like something that you might find relaxing, comforting, stimulatinng, or in any way useful, I encourage you to explore places like youtube and channel's like Heather's or spend some time browsing the Hub. I'm glad that I was turned on to this by a friend who recently discovered it. I look forward to discovering new ways to use it as a tool as I learn more about it and find more resources. 

That was Monday.

It's like when you're swimming in the ocean
And the bottom becomes the top
And you don't realize that the whole time
You have been swimming down for air
-- Crack the Mirror - Melissa Ferrick

Monday I sank to the bottom of the hole I've been trying to swim out of for months now. I laid there in the detritus and let the demons of the deep drive their spears into my chest. For a while I thought I would drown. The surface was too far away and I didn't have the energy to swim. The demons told me that I didn't deserve to try and I allowed myself to believe them. I let myself sink into the mire until it seemed I would never move again.

That was Monday.

Today I am floating toward the surface. I am not steadfast but I am steady. I am not fighting the current, I am following. I am allowing myself to drift upward. Following the navigation of the forces around me instead of fighting to bend them to my will. I find they bend with me instead of against me if I don't push them so hard. I am working with the universe instead of fighting it. I am working with my spouse instead of fighting them. I can feel them drifting with me instead of away. I am moving up at a comfortable pace. I am weathering the bumps without panicking because I am buoyant.

Never forget your buoyancy. You are buoyant. You are always buoyant. If you can't swim, just relax.

Broken and Far from Bliss

It's hard to post on a blog like this when your life is so far from where you hoped the whole ideology would take it. It's not the ideology's fault. There's nothing wrong with premise or the markers or meditations. My life is just so far out of balance right now moving forward seems impossible. I wanted to put my life on a track toward peace, mindfulness, and the journey toward the center of the soul, but my journey is about anything but bliss right now.

This blog was never supposed to chronicle just the good. That was never my intention. I just didn't realize how bad the bad the was going to get or just how black and suffocating the darkness could be. My life was already in the process of unraveling when I started this adventure. I thought that focusing on myself and my path would create energy that would help weave it all back together. It seemed clear at first where my path was going to lead me once I saw it. Grad school was probably the direction that I needed to head in. I buckled, though. I buckled and I stalled and I have yet to move forward with that at all. I became afraid that in pursuing my path it would look like I was no longer pursuing ours, and our path became more important to me than anything in the world even as thorn bushes just kept seeming to grow up across it every time we tried to move forward. Grad School started to look like an escape instead of a way forward. It became a threat instead of an affirmation. I didn't just let the ball drop, I kicked it away when it did. I still have the "to-dos" for it on my HabitRPG tasklist, but somewhere in me I know they'll go unchecked. Eventually, I'll delete them.

I've been reading Chris Hadfield's book An Astronaut's Guide to Life. It is interesting and a lot of what he says I can connect with, like sweating the small stuff. He says to sweat it all. He says to run through all the scenarios so you've prepared and that's not a bad thing. I've always thought that. My loved ones think I worry too much, but I feel like I've just always felt more prepared when I've weighed out all the possibilities of any given scenario, good or bad. I feel like, right now, though, that my fighter jet in a spin and I never read the boldface. If there is a boldface for this scenario I don't know it. I don't have the tools. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get what I need while giving what is needed. It seems like it should be easy and that we should just Stop what we're doing and Start doing better things, but that just doesn't seem to be able to happen and ... and I'm losing my mind.

I'm broken. I don't know if I can fix this kind of broken. My spouse keeps saying it takes time and we'll get there. I don't know how much time I have before I just snap or run. So, there you go. That's the truth of it. So much for Bliss.

A Great Start

I've been wanting to try out a little yoga for a long time. I enjoyed the version of it that was on the Wii Fit many moons ago when I still owned a Wii (and still worked in retail) but I have always wanted to learn more of the "real thing." So this morning, after my candle meditation and some puttering around on the internet catching up on social media, I decided to hit the Googles and see what I could find. Admittedly, this is the first video that came up in my search. I started it just to see it if seemed ok and ended up spending the next 20 minutes with it. The after effect being that I feel full of energy and my body feels pretty great. I did cause a sore spot in my back, but I think that in a few days of this, that will work itself out (and that would be excellent because I've got a lot of balled up muscles back there.) 

The only part of this I couldn't actually do was the bit where you are supposed to put your arms behind you with your arms touching and lift your butt. I do not have the upper or lower body strength to do this, and my arms don't actually touch. I am chalking this all up to "yet," though, and I'm not going to let it discourage me. I'm also going to stick with this particular video until I'm stretched out more and maybe even until I can do it. Starting the day out with meditation has been nice, but I have trouble actually allowing myself to reach a useful meditative state without distraction. This being guided really helps me focus on it and now that I've seen the movements once I won't have to actually try to see the tablet at all from now on because I have an idea of what he means when he's talking. 

I feel more awake than I have in a long time, which leads me to believe this is definitely something that I should move forward with as a habit. Good habits are the theme so far this year. That is definitely not a bad thing.

Sifting Static

It's been a while since I've written here and that last entry isn't one I'm particularly proud of, anyway. I just couldn't get it right but I published it anyway and now it's just an eyesore to me. To be honest, though, I haven't been thinking about that and that's not what's kept me from writing here. I've had a lot of static in my life and in my mind and I've been busy trying to sift through that and really just survive. I don't know if it's hormones or stomach fauna or what exactly is causing this constant feeling of chaos in my mind, but it's directly affecting every part of my life. I don't even know any more if it's because of my life or the other way around. I am trying to sort things out, though. It's a process. I'm working on it.

One good thing I want to post about is freerice.org. I used the site years ago (many many years ago) and have rediscovered it through HabitRPG (which I am still using and really enjoying --it's making a real difference in my productivity each day.) There is a Challenge there to earn 1000 grains of rice a day and bonus points for every 1000 you go over. I don't know how much real world good the site does, but it's been around for a long time, so I think if it was bogus it would be gone by now. It's felt really nice the past couple days to go there and learn something while doing a little good, even if it's not all that much in the scheme of things. I've been using the German category and really enjoying it. I've always wanted to learn German and have poked around with the idea here and there, but never stuck with it. I'm surprised how well I seem to be able to pick up on what words mean. Today I got up to level 9 of 10 and its only my second day using the site. I didn't stay there long, but I never fall back down past four and generally recovered to around 6 quickly. I know it's not really going to teach me German in any overly useful way, but it's a nice little brain exercise and I'm really enjoying it. It may inspire me to pursue that task in the future in earnest.

I've started a morning candle/meditation regime, too, that I'm going to do for the next 16 days. I might make a broader habit of it after that. It has me getting up with the sun (literally at Sunrise) every day and that's something that should be a positive, too. I get up with the sun when my tablet chimes at me, light the candle on my dresser, loosely meditate and just Be for 19 minutes until my tablet makes a lovely little bird song melody, then I put out the candle and start my day. I am very optimistic about the value of this habit.

So, that's basically where I am right now. I feel better having written out the good things I'm doing with my days and my life and my progress and that's helped clear up some of the static. Now to gather up documents so I can have the taxes out by the end of the week (Mercury is Retrograde so I'm taking my time to make sure things are done correctly and nothing is lost.) Fun!