Phone Case in Under an Hour (and only $1.25)

A simple request was made, “Nik, I need to be able to put my phone in my pocket without it getting scratched.  Can you make me something?” (Because dear readers, I don’t know if you have looked at the price of phone cases these days…not awesome.  Unless these things wake you up every morning with a hug and the encouraging words, “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and gosh-darn it people like you” they are NOT worth the money!)  So I thought and two options came to mind.

1. Crochet a long rectangle and seam it down both sides because, sweetie, you know you’re not very clever at crocheting…but that would be loose and I think I would have to make some sort of draw string or tie, bleh
2. Learn how to make a snug form fitting pocket for the phone…Agghhh…no way I am advanced enough to make something actually fit an object (note lack of hats being made around here.)

But I went to my Monday night knitting group and my crocheting buddy returned from a long absence and politely informed me that although lazy was good and seaming was a good way to go…the other option was not hard.  It would be just like a granny square, and I knew how to do those, so I could do this.

Turns out this was REALY easy.  I only had to frog it once, and that was right at the beginning.  Total amount of time spent, 2 episodes of X-files (with a break for food), total cost $1.25…now that’s my idea of a good investment in a phone case!

Little Green Phone Monster:

1. G Crochet hook and Sugar and Cream cotton yarn (little wool felt scraps for the eyes)
2. Single chain just over half the width of the phone. (This step is why I frogged the first project, my starting chain was too long.  I didn’t take into account how much the bottom would grow when I started doing the increasing rows.)
3. Turn the corner like a granny square (two stitches in one loop, single chain, two stitches in one loop)
4. Single stitch back the length of the starting chain
5. Turn next corner as you did in #3
6. Single stitch down the other side of the starting chain
7. I did this for a total of two increasing rows to make the rectangle base for the phone cover – Once I could set the phone end on the rectangle I stopped increasing at the corners (no more double stitches in one loop) and just did single stitches all the way around until it was tall enough to cover the phone.
8. I still had ten minutes of X-Files left so I decided to give the cover a face, Ta-da…phone monster! (I was originally thinking Frankenstein, but I didn’t feel like making bolts for his neck.)

Thanks to Tipnut.com for posting this on a list of 25 neat-o projects to make for March (I’m #24)