Tuesday 28 December 2010

Christmas Wreath Steering Wheel Cover

Christmas Wreath Steering Wheel Cover
Decorate your steering wheel with yule tide and knitting. With this free knitting pattern you can make yourself a wonderfully looking wreath steering wheel cover. This makes for a great holiday gift.

Materials:
2 skeins Caron Fling in Aloe
Size 13 knitting needles
Tapestry Needle

Finished Size
Depends on steering wheel size.

Abbreviations
CO = Cast on
K = Knit
BO = Bind off

Steps:
First measure the circumference of your steering wheel. That is how long you’ll knit your cover. Mine was 46” around, so I knit my piece until it was 46” long. The width of mine was about 4½“ wide with a CO of 8 stitches. I would suggest making a 2 – 3“ swatch to check that the 8 stitch width is enough to wrap around your steering wheel. The width really stretches so as long as you don’t knit extremely tight, 8 stitches should be plenty.

CO 8 stitches (add or decrease CO stitches as needed)

Knit all rows until your piece is the length of your steering wheel.

BO very loosely.

Finished piece is not sewn on, but merely attached to the steering wheel with a length of yarn and using it to wrap the finished piece around your steering wheel. Cut a length of your Caron Fling about 2-3 yards in length and wind it into a little ball so it will be easier to wind around your steering wheel. Wind a second ball for the second wrap.

Now just lay your finished piece onto the steering wheel with both ends at the bottom and the middle will be lying loosely at the top of your wheel. Starting at one end begin wrapping the width of the piece around the wheel and at the same time use your length of yarn to attach/wrap the piece to the wheel all around. Leave a long tail so that once you go all the way around you can tie these 2 end yarn pieces together.

TIP: You may find it easier to temporarly attach your piece to the steering wheel first with short loops of a contrasting bulky yarn that you can cut away as you reach them.

Keep wrapping the piece to your wheel in this manner until you reach the other end of your piece. Overlap one end of your piece over the beginning end and tie the 2 yarn ends together tightly.

That was your first wrap and the piece should now be nicely attached to your steering wheel. Now using the second long length of Caron Fling wrap your steering wheel again paying close attention to wrapping in between the other wrap and closing up any areas that aren’t wrapped around the wheel. Again tie the 2 yarn ends together tightly. Cut any yarn tails. Because you have used the Caron Fling to wrap the piece and attach it to the steering wheel the wrap doesn’t show. Cover should be very snuggly attached to the steering wheel.

All you do now is just attach your bow, also tying it onto the wheel with the Caron Fling. I took 2 lengths of the Caron Fling and put each through the loops of my bow and tied the bow to the steering wheel at the back. You can find the FREE bow pattern I used for mine at this link… http://www.enfys.me.uk/freebow.htm If you prefer just tie a satin ribbon in the same manner to the top of your steering wheel.

When the Christmas season is over and you want to remove your cover, just run your fingers over the wheel and you should easily be able to feel where it’s wrapped with the yarn strand. Cut that strand and unwrap your wheel. Remember there will be 2 strands wrapped around that you’ll have to remove.

This way you can save it to use again next year!

Free pattern from www.favecrafts.com