Wheelchair Wheel Covers

I've been using my wheelchair more and more lately as I've been battling ever-increasing pain in my hips and back. And then, a few weeks ago, my right hip apparently decided that it was done playing, which means the pain is now so bad that my leg threatens to give out on me if I try to walk unassisted, and my next appointment with my orthopedic doc isn't until later this month. So, in the meantime, I'm making do as best I can, which means using my wheelchair a lot more than before.

Finished set

Anyway, I've had this wheelchair for about a year and a half. It was gifted to me as a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law (who is a paraplegic). The wheelchair has been very helpful for me and has saved me from experiencing immense amounts of pain that I would have had without it, particularly when I'm cooking in the kitchen, because it saves me from having to stand/walk all the time.

But since I have recently been needing to use it even more, I decided the time had come to give her a bit of color and personality. 😁

First, I added some purple silicone hand rim covers, which I found on Amazon. Because purple is one of my favorite colors, obvs. 😊  

With purple hand rail covers only

Then I wanted to add some snazzy, colorful crocheted wheel covers. There are many tutorials online for how to make these, and there are many different methods that can be used to make them, so there isn't only just one "right way" to do it. This video by WheelchairCovers4U gives a good look at what the wheel covers are like and how they attach to the wheels. As you can see in the background, she has dozens of AMAZING and creative designs for the wheel covers she makes to sell. Her talent is very inspiring! I would say that if you want some wheel covers but don't want to make them yourself, you should definitely check out her shop.

Almost any circle will do - 14 rounds here

After clicking around online, I learned that there are basically two methods used to attach the covers to the wheels: using semi-rigid, flexible tubing that lets the cover "snap" into place and uses tension to hold the cover in place on the wheel; or using binder rings to attach the cover to the hand rail. I opted to go the flexible tubing route. 

Tubing and hose barbs

The description of the supplies in this Etsy listing by JubilanceCrochet says they use 3/8-inch polyethylene tubing – outer diameter 3/8-inch, inner diameter 1/4-inch – to make their hoop frames. That size of tubing gives sufficient rigidity for the frame to hold its shape while still being flexible enough to allow the hoop to snap in/out of the wheel's hand rims. I bought my tubing at our local Ace Hardware, but just about any hardware-type store should carry it, or you can find it on Amazon. I also used 1/4-inch double-ended nylon hose barbs to join the ends of the hoops. 

Hoops with hair dryer

My husband helped me to measure where to cut the tubing and also to insert the hose barbs. We applied the heat from a hair dryer to the ends of the tubing for about 60 seconds to soften it up enough to get the barbs inserted; they were VERY snug. You can see in my photo with the hair dryer that one of the rings lies flat, but the other one was more potato-chip shaped. 😂 My husband tried to twist the ends of the chip-shaped hoop in an attempt to get it to flatten out more, but eventually he gave up. I told him I was pretty sure that it would still work out OK after I attached the crocheted part and pushed the cover into the wheel. And it did. After finishing it, the chip-shaped one does have a small gap where it doesn't snug up to the inside of the hand rail all the way around as well as the flat one does, but I'm not worried about it. It still looks cute to me. (You can see the gap in my GIF when looking at the wheel on the right side of the wheelchair.) 

First attempt came up a bit short

For the crocheted portion, I used Spin Me Around by Catherine Bligh (a paid pattern), but just about any circle-shaped afghan, doily, or mandala pattern will work. "Spin Me Around" just seems terribly apropos for a project like this, don't you agree? 😵😂 If I decide to make another set of these later, I might use the Rainbow Granny Spiral Sun-Catcher pattern by Jaime Ramsey for my next set (another paid pattern). 🌀 And, OMG, for Halloween, a set of these in Boo! by Marsha Glassner (free pattern!!) would be TO DIE FOR, don't you think?!?! 👻 

Good fit this time

The tricky part about making wheel covers for any wheelchair is that the manufacturers have many different wheel sizes they use, and even wheels of the same diameter made by different manufacturers might still require different size wheel covers, depending on many different factors, such as how the hand rails are attached, etc. So it's important to keep this in mind as you're making your own set of wheel covers: The process is going to be highly customized to your unique wheelchair, and you can't just blindly rely on a pattern to give you the exact measurements your specific chair will require. My wheelchair has 24-inch wheels, and the measurement inside the hand rails is about a 20-inch diameter. We measured the best fit for the tubing on my chair to be about 60-inch lengths. And, remember, if you use hose barbs to attach the ends like I did, the barbs will add a tiny bit of length to the final measurement. 

First one done!

Using "tough" acrylic yarn is a good choice for the durability needed for a project like this. I had most of a skein of Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo Stripes in the Parrot Stripe colorway on hand in my stash. I figured the bright colors and the long color changes it has would work well for this project. 

First one installed - cuuute!

It turned out that the one skein would have been just the right amount to make the two wheel covers, including the length needed to crochet the covers to the rims, if I hadn't already used part of the skein to machine knit two hats for my grandnieces. 😆 But even so, I was nearly finished with the final row of my second wheel cover when that yarn ran out. It ended with green, so I found some Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green in my stash, which had enough length left to finish up that row and then crochet the second wheel cover to its rim, and it all turned out fine. Some makers, including JubilanceCrochet, prefer to use black yarn to attach their covers to the rims, no matter what color the center of the cover is, so I would say that it's fine to just use whatever colors you like and have on hand. 

Two different 5mm hooks

At my gauge, my wheel covers were the correct size after crocheting 16 rounds. I stopped after 14 rounds on my first one and was about halfway around crocheting it to the rim when I realized that I was going to need to make the circle part bigger. So if you're making wheel covers for yourself, just be prepared for some trial and error as part of the process. You need them to be large enough to fit the hoops, but you also want the crocheted circles to stretch a bit so they fit snugly inside the hoops. It's a balance between "big enough" but not "too big."

To attach the crocheted circles to the rims, I chained up two and then single-crocheted around the rim into each stitch of the circle all the way around. This step is extremely fiddly, especially at the beginning, and awkward and difficult. But if you take it slowly and give yourself plenty of rest breaks, eventually you will make it all the way around and be ready to finish off with a knot to secure everything and weave in the tail.

As a postscript, I included the photo of my two 5mm crochet hooks to illustrate the differences between the lip length. I prefer to use tapered hooks, like these, but even within that broad category, there can be significant differences in the shapes that affect their usability for individual crocheters. For me, the hook on the right, with the longer lip, was definitely more difficult to use, because the lip kept snagging as I worked. The hook on the left worked much more smoothly for me. The difference is minor, and I know different crocheters will have different preferences in which tools work best for them. But it's something to keep in mind: If you're struggling with a particular hook, consider trying one from another manufacturer.

Smock vest from men's denim shirt

Here's a quick sewing project for converting a long-sleeved denim men's shirt into an oversized smock-style vest or apron with lined pockets.

I started with a long-sleeved denim men's shirt like the one in the photo below. (I forgot to take a "before" photo of my shirt, but mine looked almost identical to the one below.)

To make a pattern for the large patch pockets, I used my husband's Carhartt vest as the prototype. These pockets are large and deep, so there's plenty of room for stashing a phone, or my hands, or whatever else I would like to carry in there.

Husband's vest

I laid my husband's vest out flat on my fabric cutting table. Then I took a sheet of newspaper and laid it over the pocket. Using a pencil, I gently traced around the perimeter of the vest pocket to transfer its shape onto the newspaper, then I cut out that pocket shape. I placed the newspaper pocket over a piece of lightweight scrap cardboard I had in my craft stash and, using a ruler and pencil, I marked a half-inch larger (for the sewing seam allowance) to the size of the newspaper pocket around all the sides, then used the ruler to connect those lines, which are the lines for cutting out the pocket pattern on the cardboard.

Originally I was going to make the pocket pattern using a sheet of thin cutting-board vinyl, similar to the ones shown in the photo below, because it's rigid-ish and durable enough for multiple uses as a pattern guide yet thin enough to be cut to size with scissors, but I couldn't find the sheets today that I know I have in my craft stash somewhere, which I bought years ago for this purpose, so I improvised and used the lightweight cardboard instead. Either way, it creates a pattern piece that can be reused for future projects where I want to have this same type of pocket, and, either way, the pattern piece is thin enough to store with my other pattern files.

Vinyl cutting-board sheets

There are many DIY tutorials online for how to upcycle shirts (or even jeans!) into a vest. One tutorial that I enjoyed was this one by Broken Ghost DIY on YouTube. The way she cut off the collar in her project is very similar to the technique I used here. I carefully trimmed off the flap portion of the collar of my shirt, leaving the collar band below intact for a sort-of mandarin collar effect.

Next, I carefully cut off the sleeves, cutting outside of the seams where the sleeves were sewn onto the shirt (cutting on the sleeve side of the seams, in other words). The tiny bit of fabric left behind after cutting off the collar and the sleeves will fray in the wash and lend a rustic touch to the edges.

I laid my pocket pattern over one of the sleeves and was gratified to see that there was enough fabric in the upper part of one sleeve to allow me to cut out two pockets. If one sleeve hadn't been big enough to cut out two pockets, I knew I would have been able to use the tops of both sleeves to cut one pocket out of each. But since I was able to cut both pockets out of one sleeve, now I have another whole extra sleeve to use as scrap fabric for another project later.

For the pocket lining, I dug into my fabric stash and selected two pink bandanas just waiting to be needed for something. I think the pink bandana fabric makes a nice accent/contrast to the blue denim. All together, I cut two pocket fronts out of the denim and two pocket linings out of the pink bandana fabric and then pinned the pieces together with right-sides facing.

I sewed the pocket fronts to the linings, leaving an unsewn gap of a few inches at the bottom of each pocket for turning them right-side out.

After sewing, I trimmed the excess fabric at each corner, then turned the pockets right-side out and pressed them smooth with my iron. With the seam allowance pressed to the inside, I topstitched along the bottom edge of each pocket to secure the areas that were previously left unsewn for turning the pockets right-side out.

To position the pockets on the front of the shirt, I laid the shirt flat on my cutting table, with some of the buttons fastened to keep the sides even, and then placed the pockets where I thought they looked good, using my cardboard pocket pattern as a guide to ensure the pockets were level with each other. I pinned them in place and then tried on the vest to see if the pockets were positioned at a comfortable height for my hands. Once I had the pockets pinned exactly where I wanted them, I sewed the pockets in place with my sewing machine, backstitching several times at the beginning/end to reinforce the pocket openings.

A peek inside the pockets

The nice thing about making pockets this way is that there are no raw edges exposed anywhere, because they are all hidden between the pocket fronts and the pocket linings.

And, just like that, my smock vest/apron was done and ready to wear! 

 

Freija cowl

I love the look of this pullover bandana cowl and just had to make one. It's the Freja halsedisse by Hygge strikke, a paid pattern. It is knitted top-down, starting with the turtleneck. The lovely look of the front/back panels is achieved using a clever combination of increases and bind-offs, which gives the hem almost a lettuce edge.

I wanted my front panel to be longer, so I deviated from the pattern by making fewer bind-offs in the third section to allow for more rows of length. I also wanted to lengthen the back panel to help keep chilly drafts off my back, so instead of binding those stitches off as directed in the pattern, I put the stitches on hold while finishing the front panel, and then reattached the yarn to the back stitches and knitted a smaller version of the front panel in the back.

Top view

 

Side view

This cowl is one of three coordinating pieces that I made by cannibalizing this unfinished poncho project. The other two pieces are a Sno Cap Hood scarf and a messy-bun hat based on the Endless Texture Brim Hat design.

 

Sno Cap Hood scarf

Brioche knits are drop-dead gorgeous. But even though I'm a fairly skilled knitter, I just have never really been able to wrap my head around the technique.

Sometimes it is possible to substitute the fisherman's rib stitch in place of brioche rib. This lovely hooded scarf, by little quail handcraft, designed in a simple brioche rib, seems to be a suitable candidate for that substitution, so I'm going to give it a try that way. 😊 Using the fisherman's rib stitch makes this pattern accessible for me. If you are able to knit in brioche, go for it! 

It has been a few years since the last time I worked in fisherman's rib, so I used the video and blog tutorials by Davina Choy of Sheep & Stitch to refresh my memory for how to work this easy, squishy stitch.

For the yarn, I am cannibalizing this poncho project that I crocheted in 2022. It weighs about 512 grams, which, by weight, works out to approximately the equivalent of 4 skeins of this yarn. Those 4 skeins weren't quite enough to finish the poncho to my satisfaction, even though I really liked the way the project was coming along (and I believe the Eggplant/Taupe colorway had already been discontinued, and I didn't feel like searching around online to try to buy more), so my poncho sat in purgatory for about four years while I figured out what else I wanted to make with this fiber.

From poncho to Sno Cap Hood

Fair warning: There is enough of a wool halo in this yarn to frequently make it difficult to rip back. Also, there is a lot of variability in the thickness of this yarn from the way it's spun, which almost gives it a homespun character. 

Variable thickness in the fiber

I don't have the labels anymore, but from what I can see online, each of these skeins is supposed to be about 312 yards, so I should have more than enough on hand to knit a Sno Cap Hood, even with my mods to increase the size.

I deviated from the pattern by starting off with a scarf width of 25 stitches, because I prefer my scarves to be on the wider side. At this gauge, that is giving me a scarf that's about 6 inches wide, which is a fairly standard scarf width.

After knitting a couple of inches, I realized that I was not happy with the way the selvedge stitches were sitting, so I ripped back to the beginning and switched from working the slipped-stitch selvedges (as per the pattern) to working them in garter stitch. At least for the fiber that I'm working with here, having garter stitch selvedges looks better, so I'm glad I noticed early on how I felt about the edges and was able to make the change before I got so far along that ripping back would have been more painful. Sometimes you just have to go with what the personality of your fiber is saying. 😂

Before starting the hood increases, I knitted the length of the first scarf tail to about 36 inches, which was about 162 rows at the gauge I'm working with this fiber. 

To work the fisherman's rib double increases/decreases for the hood portion, this video tutorial by Carolina of So Wooly is the perfect guide for executing that technique. She also provides a written tutorial of the technique on her blog.

At first the hood increases seem counterintuitive because they alternate between being worked on the right side and the wrong side (and the center stitch "moves" each time, but I really can't explain it; you just have to do it and trust the pattern), but if you follow the pattern as written (because it's correct, of course!) and also "read" your knitting as you go, you'll soon be able to tell the rows where you need to increase. Once you start knitting the increases section, and you're able to see how it comes together, you will see how the instructions make sense and keep you making the increases on the knit side of the center stitch. 

Increases

I did make some mistakes as I was working the increase section. If you look closely at my photo of the increases, you can see where I increased on the wrong stitch a few times. But since I was able to stay in the ribbing pattern, those mistakes are not super obvious, thank goodness. Whew! 😅 The ribbing is somewhat forgiving of a few small mistakes. Using a couple of removable markers to mark the center section (and moving them after each increase/decrease) can help a lot. 

Love the phasing of the colors

I increased to a total of 57 stitches for the hood (or 11 increases). Not only do I prefer my scarves to be on the wider and longer side, but I also prefer my hoods to be amply sized to fit over my hair, which I usually wear up in a messy bun style. Plus, the extra depth will keep the back of my neck extra cozy when the hood is down, so win-win!

About another foot to go

As a natural English-style knitter, I am always Majestically Awkward 🦩 while knitting in any type of rib stitch, so I won't often take on an entire project in rib stitch, but this hooded scarf is definitely worth it. 💜 I love to watch videos of continental-style knitters working; it's hypnotically beautiful to me. And I have tried multiple times to retrain my hands to knit continental style (I comprehend how they're doing it), but my hands just simply refuse to cooperate because they know that they can already knit just fine in English style, thank you very much. 🤦 Oh well, I'll probably keep trying from time to time to learn continental style, and maybe someday it will stick for me. 😂 

In addition to this Sno Cap Hood, I was able to knit two other coordinating projects using the yarn from the poncho project: a Freja cowl and a messy-bun hat based on the Endless Texture Brim Hat design.

Matching accessories

 

Princess Rosalee's baby dress 'Raspberry'

This is a dress with a ruffle yarn skirt made for Princess Rosalee, who is currently 2 months old. I don't know exactly what size dress this pattern made, but I think she might need to grow some more before she will be big enough to wear this. And that's OK!

Front of dress

I had a large ball of pink yarn (no label, of course) that was included in a bag of yarn that was given to me some years ago. The ball was large enough that I thought it might have enough yardage to crochet this baby dress. But unfortunately, I discovered when I was on about row 10 of the skirt that the pink yarn had actually been knotted to and wound around a decent amount of another color of peachy-pinkish yarn at the center of the ball. (Ugh.) I have no idea why anyone would tie a different color of yarn on to continue winding a ball like that, but alas. That's just how it was done.

First attempt

So that left me with Rosalee's dress about 3/4 completed and needing to try to figure out the brand and colorway of the pink yarn I had started with, or at least to find something close enough to be able to finish the project without it looking awful.

Starting second attempt

 

Coboo label

I thought perhaps the mystery pink yarn was one made by Red Heart, but after lots of looking around both online and IRL, I wasn't able to find another pink yarn that matched this (of course not!! 🤦) which left me with the choice of continuing to work in another yarn color that didn't match, or else to start over with another yarn. I opted to start over using Lion Brand Coboo in the Pale Pink colorway.

 

Comparing size

Coboo has a lovely feel and drape, but it is a struggle to crochet with it because the ultra-fine plies are very loosely spun, and so it often wants to split, which means you have to be VERY careful to hold the plies together as you work. I have used Coboo before on my circular knitting machine, and it worked easily there. But using it to crochet is a different story. However, it was the color and type of fiber content that I wanted to use for the base of this dress, so I persevered. 😂

Dress inside out

 

Underside of skirt

Another difference is that the Coboo yarn is rated a 3/DK weight, whereas the other yarn I had started with felt more like a 4/worsted weight (and the dress pattern calls for a 4 weight yarn), so I also had to use a smaller hook size than what the pattern recommended. 

Back of dress

Attempting to make a pattern in a different gauge than what the designer used is another layer of challenge, but at least I had the other version of the dress that I started with to give me something to compare size as I began making the dress with the Coboo yarn, and I ended up being able to come fairly close to the original by adding just a few extra stitches/rows.

Dress with cardigan

Frisian Knitting Tutorials has a video on YouTube that shows how to crochet the dress and also a paid pattern available on Ravelry, but you can make the dress by following the video. I followed the video for my project, except I added Rozetti ruffle yarn to each DC stitch in every-other row of the skirt starting in the increase row after creating the arm holes in the bodice. (The ruffle yarn doesn't intrude onto the inside of the dress, so it won't irritate Rosalee's skin.) I also added a row of shells for a finishing trim around the hemline, which you can see on the "dress inside out" photo.

Dress with cardigan and bonnet

The ruffle yarn actually came from a pre-knitted ruffle scarf (meaning it was a display sample piece that I purchased already made, and thus I never had the label from the skein) that I purchased at a little yarn shop in Lake Havasu, Arizona, way back in the early 2010s. But I did still have another skein of the same brand in another colorway with its label intact in my stash, which I bought at the same shop, which made it possible to locate the name of the colorway of the one I used for this project by searching around online. To make the ruffles, I simply undid the knot at one end and unraveled the scarf to work the ruffle yarn loops held with the Coboo yarn, resulting in this ruffle-y sweet baby dress that's fit for a little princess to wear.

Aren't these sunglasses simply adorable?!?

And if the ruffles eventually get tattered from being worn/laundered, it will be easy to snip the loops to remove the ruffle yarn while leaving the underlying pink dress intact and still perfectly wearable on its own.

As you can see in the photos, I also crocheted a cardigan and bonnet to go with the dress. Here's a link to my post about that project. 

Dress, cardigan, bonnet, sunglasses, and headband!

My gift parcel to Princess Rosalee includes a set of mesh bags that can be used to protect delicate items like her dress while they're being laundered. I'm also tucking in a set of sleeveless onesies, in case Mommy prefers Rosalee to have a lightweight layer between her skin and the dress, and a pair of white leggings, in case it's a cold day, to keep Rosalee's legs warm under the skirt. I'm also including a set of ruffle diaper cover shorts (one white, one pink) for Rosalee to wear under the skirt on warm days. There is also a set of colorful, stretchy headbands, which I bought just to be able to add a little "flower" (made from the last few inches of leftover Rozetti lace yarn) to the pink one. My husband also found an adorable set of pink baby sunglasses, so of course we had to grab those, too! All in all, I think Baby and Mommy will be thrilled. 💜

Headband with "flower"

Extra goodies!