Thursday, June 9, 2011

Father's Day Gift Idea!

Father's Day is next weekend, are you ready? If not, here's a 4-5 hour project you can make: a knitted steering wheel cover for Dad's car:








Easy to make, unique, and will keep dear ol' Dad's fingers warm in winter and comfy in summer (you know how hot those steering wheels can get!)



You will need: Knifty Knitter flower loom, yarn needle, loom hook, scissors, Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn (I used San Diego Navy and Oakland Black. You can use whatever colors you want, maybe even the colors of Dad's favorite sports team) or any super bulky yarn.

First, using an antibacterial wipe or cloth, clean off the entire steering wheel and dry it with a paper towel. (If you get in the mood, why not shock the pants off Dad and vacuum the whole car?) Then, using a measuring tape, measure the circumference and width of the steering wheel (SW). The SW that I based my pattern on measures 4" wide x 47 3/4" around.


Next, cast on pegs 2-11 of the flower loom, using the e-wrap (stockinette) method. You will be knitting 1 over 2, so loosely wrap pegs 2-11 with yarn 3 times and knit off. The key word is wrap loosely, otherwise you will struggle with knitting off. Keep the yarn loose, and you can work faster. You will knit off for 190 rows, or 38", unless you are adding different colors, which may take you up to 3 hours, depending on how fast you knit and whether or not you added different colors. The cover will probably curl naturally, like mine did as I knit it:


Next, leaving about a 5" tail, snip the working yarn and bind off the loom using your threaded yarn needle. Using one hand to position the cover at the top of the SW, stretch the cover around the circumference of the SW until the ends meet. You want the cover to be snug to the SW, that's why you knit it shorter than the actual circumference of the SW. If it is still a bit loose, frog stitches from the bind off end. Once you reach the desired fit, sew the ends of the cover together and knot the two tails together (the tail from the working yarn and the tail from when you cast on). Stretch the cover over the SW and position so that colors are to your liking (if you knit with more than one color).


Next, cut an 18" piece of yarn, thread your yarn needle, and (starting at the bottom of the SW) sew the ends of the cover together, pulling the yarn tight as you work, so that the cover stretches tightly around the SW as it is sewn shut.


In areas where you cannot sew the covers together, thread the needle through the outer loops of the cover


until you can sew the two sides of the cover together again.


Depending on how fast you work, sewing the cover onto the SW will take 20-30 minutes. When you reach the bottom of the cover where you first started, knot the two yarn tails together and pull the tails through the inside of the cover, snipping off excess tails as needed. And you're done!


Dad will certainly be surprised, and it will make his car just that much easier to find when he parks in a crowded parking lot; probably no one else will have a knitted SW cover!


If you make it, I'd love to see how yours turned out!

16 comments:

  1. love this idea! do you think it would work if i knitted a flat piece to the same dimensions and stitched it on? i don't have the flower loom, but have long and round looms...

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    1. Knit in stockinette stitch to the dimensions that you want. Stockinette will curl all by itself. It will look just like the picture. Use dpns. This is a great idea. I think I will use up some of my left over yarn. All in great colors.

      Thank you Loom Dude.

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  2. I think it would if you casted on 11 rows.. and continues like he says kwim? I would have to pull out my flower loom to find out the dimension of the pegs between each other.. but I dont see why it wouldnt be the same idea.. I dont think it would work though if you were to knit long ways instead of short way like the flower loom would do.. I would think binding off wouldnt work well..

    Ty for posting this btw! I am SO making this lol. My hubbys hands sweat like crazy so this is PERFECT for him! now.. do you know how to make a antennae ball ? lol

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  3. Love it!! This is the perfect Father's Day gift.

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  4. Thanks!!

    Tonya, I would use the blue round loom on the same number of pegs and follow the directions as outlined above. I think since they are both round looms the pegs are spaced the same. Test it first for 15-20 rows to see how it knits up. Makes for some really comfy driving.

    Would love to make an antenna ball if I had some Dale of Norway Hauk yarn, which is waterproof!

    I would have tried to make a car seat cover using cottom yarn, but there are too many variations in car seat designs, and I don't want to favor just one car manufacturer, unless one is reading this blog and wants me to design one for them! : )

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  5. I made one of those for my car many long years ago. I used leftover bits and pieces, and it was very colourful. It was great for summer, when the wheel would get so hot I couldn't touch it, or in winter, when it got so cold I couldn't touch it! I finally took it off when I sold the car.... I'm still waiting for my next car! I thought it was the perfect thing; I really found it very helpful.

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  6. this is awesome. My hubbie as always needing s.w. covers!! i never ever thought of making one! wowow thanks for the inspiration!

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  7. That is so cool! Ray would love to have one of those. So very cool.
    Hey Greg! Hope that you will have a wonderful father's day. Kiss the wife and child for me.
    V

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  8. Ok Started making one.. But I didnt have the PC available so I didnt see that you did 2-11 not 1-12.. blah. SO Now I am about half way threw... with the wrong numbers done LOL. go figure.. I will have to frog it & do it right lol.

    Making mine all black.. thought about sewing it together using black.. then taking blue & doing a loop around all of it.. like if it was laced kwim? maybe.. who knows lol

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  9. ok just read the binding off part (decided to write it down just in case I couldnt get back on here lol) Do I just use my needle/yarn to go up the loops like if I was gathering it?

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  10. Very cool! I thought of making a green one--like a wreath for Christmas with a red bow. Maybe this year! :-D

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  11. loving this idea. on the flower loom the poles are removable which i thought i should mention

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  12. Just love your ideas, and this one is the "bomb"!!! Am going to make one for myself, also :)

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  13. Misty, for an antennae ball you could do a gathered cast on (on the KK bloom loom) and kind of 'eyeball' how many rows to do (probably 5-6) then stuff a small foam ball (like you get at wal mart) inside then gather cast off to close it up. Then you could just stuff it on the antennae.

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  14. Is there a video of how to do this? I think that I have it but do not want to mess it up

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