Free pattern and a how to

Everyone likes free stuff, right? Well you’ll love this post then, because I’m giving away a pattern for an iPhone cover. Well Covered is a simple crochet cover done in double crochet throughout in cotton, with a choice of edgings.

The cotton I’ve used is Rico Essentials DK, which is available from SoSusie Yarns for just £2.50 a ball. She’s at Archway market every other Saturday, so if you’re around pay her a visit. There’s a cupcake stall at the market too, if you need any further encouragement to go.

For your free pattern, go to the end of this post, click on the image of the pattern and the right-click (or Control-click if you're an Apple Mac user) and then save the image. If this doesn't work work, email me and I'll send you a press-ready PDF.

The Well Covered iPhone cover, with edging I
(back cover in red) and edging II (front, in blue).

The cotton is actually a really lovely yarn. It’s mercerised yet still really soft. It’s hard wearing, so will protect your beloved iPhone and it’s machine washable. It comes in some gorgeous colours. Double crochet is the easiest of stitches and there’s no shaping, so even if you’re a complete beginner this is a very simple pattern to follow. In fact the most difficult bit is the picot edging, and you don’t even have to do that. If you want to give it a go, however, here’s a how to.

How to picot

I’ve got a pattern for a lovely lacy crochet top. It incorporates a picot stitch, which I had never done before, so I looked up how to do it. I couldn’t work it out, so I left the stitch out. Recently I decided I wanted to do a picot edging on an iPhone cover, so I looked it up again: chain 3, then chain into the first chain. It still didn’t make sense. I can’t see how chaining into that first chain works. You’re going back on yourself, which is surely going to be very difficult and look very untidy.

So I had a look on YouTube and found plenty of video tutorials on the picot stitch. I watched the videos and it didn’t look that complicated, so I gave it a go. And I was right - going back and chaining into that first chain was incredibly fiddly and didn’t look good. I watched the videos again, tried the stitch again. Same thing. It was time to start looking at the construction of the stitch.

Normally with a crochet stitch you work into the upperside, inserting your hook under the two strands that make a ‘V’. This is what I was trying to do with the picot. But it’s also possible to work into the underside. Try making a few chains and then turn them upside down. Each stitch has a single loop making up the underside. So instead of trying to go backwards and into the top of the first chain, move your hook as if you’re going to work the next stitch in the row and insert your hook into the single loop of the first chain in your picot. As you’re now working forwards, the stitch is easier to complete and looks much neater.

Nead and tidy picots!

Maybe everyone already does their picot stitches like this, but nowhere did I see it described as such and it certainly didn’t look like that on the videos I watched. With my new technique perfected, I could do a picot edging for my Well Covered iPhone cover, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Free pattern: Well Covered iPhone cover. Please
click on the image, then right-click
(Control-click) and save the image to download.