This is Jean Luc Picard, of the USS Entreprise...

Equation for a quick birthday gift, for a sci-fi geek : left over wool + Star Trek fan + technology obsessed = Star Trek pyjama-like knitted phone cover.

Perfect! 

          

The knitting bit was really easy. After all, these Star Alliance uniform aren’t the trickiest to convert into..., well into anything really!... So here, no rocket science involved (poor pun intended).

The phone I’ve made this cover for is a Galaxy model (that one pun isn’t intended though!), but I’m hoping to work out measurements to fit an iPhone/iPod soon, and maybe tablets too... And in other colours than that of the Star Trek Next Generation Commander’s red.

Patrick Stewart, as Commander Jean Luc Picard

Using DK wool from the stash and 3mm straight needles (you can easily translate to double pointed needles I’m sure)

Cast on 24 stitches, using black wool.

Work 2 rows on 2x2 ribs.

Knit 8 rows in stockinette stitch.

Switch to the red wool, and continue in stockinette stitch until the piece measures 27cm from cast on edge.

Switch to black wool, work another 8 rows, and 2 rows in 2X2 ribs.

Cast off. Join sides using mattress stitch. Block.

Like I said, this is the easy bit. To transform this random block of colour into a Commander Jean-Luc Picard’s uniform, I needed to add a few things that are Next Generation specifics. It’s all about the details you know!... To start with, the insignia, the communicator badge for those in the know (that won’t be me by the way!). Using felt sheets and some random silver and gold paint, I managed to do just that in a way that it’s isn’t too bulky and also it is easy to sew it on and/or glue on the cover itself.

Also, another Trekkie I know suggested that I should add the 4 gold “dots” on the top of the black bit, as they are the mark of the rank of Commander Picard. I think. Well, whatever they are, they served me well as I hid a button in, or more like underneath, one of them; creating therefore a wee closing system for the phone cover. 

materials

communicator badge in the making

finished product

Et voilà!!! (Commander Picard is French, isn’t he?...)

Hobbit Kindle cover # 1

Did I ever tell you that I am a nerd?

Well, there’s no hiding this from you anymore...

And it’s well due time that I blend my love for sci-fi and fantasy literature with my obsession with colour work knitting.

For my first nerdy knit creation and colour chart, I chose to make myself a cover for my trusty Kindle. And the inspiration comes from the best of them all, JRR Tolkien. I’ll be keeping the Lord of The Rings aside for a little while for now  -although I do have quite a number of burgeoning ideas in relation to it; so I’ll use The Hobbit instead. And I’m thinking it’s going to be rather straight forward really. Dwarves = runes = straight lines = easy. But is it really? Hell no it isn’t! I have now been working on this chart for a couple of days, and I am pulling my hair a little bit here.

For those of you who are unaware of this classic of literature that is The Hobbit; it tells the story of, duh!,  a hobbit (I don’t need to tell you what a hobbit is surely!) who finds himself embarked on a adventure with a bunch of dwarves thanks to a certain wizard who might just be as famous as Merlin himself by now.  The purpose of the adventure is to reunite the dwarves with an enormous family treasure that is now guarded by a nasty dragon. And because there is a treasure to find, there is a map. Thror’s map. And it is the legend, the key, of this map that I am *trying* to transform into a e-reader/tablet cover. To be more precise, that little bit on the left corner that marks (I quote) “the secret entrance. You see that rune on the West side [of the mountain], and the hand pointing to it from the other runes? That marks a hidden passage to the Lower Halls.”

Thror's map - as printed in my copy of The Hobbit

work in progress

So there you go, or more accurately there I go! Let’s keep working on this idea, the dwarvish runes may not be as easy as I thought to transfer onto a chart, but I’ll soon get there I know. And then onto knitting a cosy and awesome looking cover for my Kindle...  And then when I succeed at this one, perhaps I’ll think about creating more nerdy designs for tablet covers (Harry Potter anyone? Or A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones?)...  

Mmmmmmh, I may be onto something here...