The well-dressed Ipad: a free pattern

view of the Wood River, taken from my kitchen window on 12 January 2011

It was clear to me that my Ipad needed something warm and cozy to buffer against the intense winter we're having. A sweater seemed the way to go. Herewith my pattern, which you should feel free to modify.

Here is the shape you're aiming for. The pebbles are not included; I used them to keep the fabric from rolling while I photo'd it.

Materials: #9 needles, 1-1/2 balls of Noro Kureyon (3.6 ounces) or similar-weight worsted with good felting potential, a large button.

Instructions: Cast on 3 stitches and knit two rows stockinette. Continuing in stockinette, increase every other row on the second and the penultimate stitch by M1 until you have a triangle of 57 stitches or of a width that measures one inch larger than your Ipad on each side.

At this point, continue in stockinette until your fabric is long enough to fold into a pouch that can completely encase the Ipad, so that the triangular sections falls envelope-like down the front. Bind off the top. Sew up the side seams.

Next, felt the pouch. If you don't have a top-loading washing machine at your disposal, you can try what I did and plunge it into almost-boiling water (I used a lobster pot) to which have been added a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent and a tablespoon of baking soda. Have a pair of tongs at hand so you can agitate the pouch in the water, insuring that the fibers will felt up nicely.

Let me say right now that this was the frightening part, and results may vary. As a prior felting experience proved, the process is not for the faint of heart.

taking the plunge

swishing it around with tongs

Here it is, cooking. I weighted the Ipad sweater with a wooden form cut to the approximate size of the Ipad (courtesy of H), but that didn't prevent it from rising to the top and becoming blobby.

Just removed from the hot bath! It appeared not to have shrunk much and I was anticipating failure.

The Knitting Goddess advised me to shock it with cold water. It seemed to retract slightly after this.

By now I was becoming more convinced that the results were dubious. I quickly rolled the case in a dry towel to soak up the excess moisture, then put it (still inside the towel) into the dryer for about a half hour at medium. But in the end it came out all right, more or less. (Actually more...the case is still a bit oversized, but nothing that can't be remedied by a small inside seam.)

So that's the story, my friends.

As it turns out, the red "leather" Ipad case (this case is to leather as Cool Whip is to whipped cream) I ordered from Amazon.com (see my prior blog post) arrived in the mail before I finished the sweater, and therefore the sweater is superfluous. At any rate, I won't take it with me to England, because at this point I don't have time to finish it before my departure tomorrow (ah yes, the departure was postponed because of a major blizzard on the northeast coast that happened yesterday and the previous day). On my return I will add a button and an i-cord string-thing to wrap around the button, and that will be that. I will have a warm and stylish Ipad.

Necessity was the mother of this invention, and  non-utilitarian fashion will be its future raison d'être.