First FO of 2007 and a free pattern for you.

Do you all remember this beautiful sweater?

I decided to felt the whole sweater and make it into a purse, but had never quite gotten around to it. It has sat in my stash for about 3 months now and I pulled it out yesterday for my first official FO of 2007.

I present to you "Braided" my felted, cabled needle case:

This is based on Kable, a free pattern by Berroco, with a few notable modifications.

I didn't actually bother to knit and felt the main body of the case. Instead I felted a whole wool sweater and cut off the back of it for this piece. This resulted in a really stunning striped fabric, without all the tediousness of all those colors.

My piece was quite a bit shorter than the suggested size, but actually accommodates 15 sets of needles instead of the 9 that are shown in the original.

In order to accomplish this, I abandoned their single twisted cable pattern in favor of my braided pattern. This allows for more crossovers in a shorter distance. I thought that the original had the needles a little too far apart anyway, so I like mine better.

Want to make one like it? Here's how!

Materials:
1 Beautiful 100% wool Thrift Store sweater
Worsted weight yarn in a coordinating shade (I used Paton's Classic 100% Merino Wool)
Size 6 needles
A crochet hook (any size)
Sewing needle and coordinating sewing thread
2 Pretty Buttons

Special abbreviations:
C6F (Cable 6 forward): Place 6 stitches on a cable needle and hold to the front. Knit the next 6 stitches. Knit the 6 stitches from the cable needle. A 12 stitch forward twist is created.
C6B (Cable 6 Back): Place 6 stitches on a cable needle and hold to the back. Knit the next 6 stitches. Knit the 6 stitches from the cable needle. A 12 stitch backward twist is created.

Throw the sweater in the washing machine and intentionally felt it until it is your desired thickness and fuzziness. Make sure that it does not felt down smaller than about 16" or 17" width wise so that it will accommodate your needles. Cut the back off of said sweater, and trim into a perfect rectangle.

Cable strips (make 2):
Cast on 22 stitches
Prep rows 1 & 3: Knit
Prep row 2 & 4: K2, P18, K2
Prep row 5: K2, C6F, K8

Row 1 (and all odd rows): K2, P18, K2
Row 2 & 4: Knit
Row 6: K8, C6B, K2
Row 8 & 10: Knit
Row 12: K2, C6F, K8
Repeat rows 1-12 until braid measures about an inch shorter than your rectangle. (Sample braid has 17 crosses or 8 pattern repeats, yours may have more or less).
Weave in ends

Lay strips on your rectangle so that they are evenly spaced from the edges. Sew them down onto the background fabric.

With your crochet hook, attach a chain to the end of your cable strip and make a chain that is large enough to fit around your button. Repeat for the other strip and weave in all ends.

Roll your case up to get the correct placement for your buttons and sew them on (It's probably a good idea to fill this baby up before you do this, so that it's at it's largest size.)

You're done! Fill that baby up with circular needles, straight needles, or whatever, by sticking your sticks through the gap created each time you cabled. Take your needles anywhere and show off that pretty case for the world to see!