CPAP hose sleeve re-knit

A few years ago, I hand-knit a sleeve/cozy for the hose on my CPAP machine. It used one whole skein of Big Twist Sincerely Ombres in Gray Denim. I knit it flat on size 7 needles, then (without breaking the yarn) left a long tail and used a 5mm crochet hook to single-crochet the long seam together on the inside, which would make it easier for me to undo the work and reuse the yarn later if I decided to redo the hose sleeve, since that was my first attempt at knitting one.

It was around that same time when I first started hearing about the wonderful circular knitting machines like the Addi, Sentro, etc., and after spending some time studying what the machines could do, I was certain I could reknit this hose sleeve using a 22-needle machine. It would be a couple of years before I'd decide to invest in the Addi Express Professional, but that time finally came, and this is the first item I knitted on it.

I cast on with waste yarn for about 12-13 rows then started knitting with some Grey Heather Red Heart Super Saver. When I hand-knit the hose sleeve, it was only 17 stitches wide, and since the Addi has 22 needles, I wanted to be sure the reknit sleeve would be long enough, so I knit with the gray Red Heart yarn for 48 rows (about 11 inches). Then I changed to the Big Twist yarn and continued knitting. The counter read 358 rows when I stopped knitting with the Big Twist yarn and switched back to waste yarn for another 12-13 rows before casting off.

I had left a long tail (about 6 yards) before starting the Red Heart yarn in the machine. I used that long tail to pick up and SC in each stitch from the waste yarn on the cast-on end. Then I continued to SC in each stitch around in a continuous spiral (without joining at the end of rounds) until the yarn ran out. There was enough yarn for about 4 rounds of SC on that end. I finished off with the gray yarn and then removed the waste yarn from that end of the hose cover.

At the other end of the hose cover I had also left a long tail of the Big Twist yarn. I used that tail to pick up and SC in each stitch from the waste yarn. Then I chained 16 to form a long loop for the frame of my mask to slip through (to help hold the hose sleeve in place during use), then SC in the next stitch to join the loop to the edge of the hose sleeve, and SC in the next 10 stitches and chained 16 again for the second mask loop. I joined that loop with a SC in the next stitch and SC in all the stitches until I was back to where the first loop chain began. I put a SC in each chain of the loop, then continued with SC around the edge of the hose sleeve until reaching the second loop chain. I repeated putting a SC in each chain and then continued in SC along the edge of the hose sleeve until the yarn was about to run out and finished off there.

I think the extra stitches in the width of the Addi-knit hose sleeve will make it a little bit easier to put on and take off this version of the hose sleeve compared to my hand-knit version. These yarns are nice and soft (after machine washing and drying), so they make a nice hose cover.

Quick and easy CPAP hose cozy

Knitting machines with 22 needles are the perfect size to knit cozies to cover a CPAP air hose. 

I didn't precisely count the rows on this project on the Sentro 22, but it's pretty close to 390 rows of knitting (about 72 inches) with a few rounds of SC (5.5mm hook) on each end for stability.

Red Heart Super Saver Neon Stripes colorway

I'll probably also add two straps with ends secured by small buttons at one end of the cozy so the straps can hold the wearer's mask end of the hose up close to the mask to keep the cozy from slipping down during use.

It only took about an hour to machine knit this piece. Attempting to knit the same thing by hand would have taken me weeks (and probably at least 12 hours) of work. So having a knitting machine available is a huge help to me for projects like this. I do love to hand knit (and there are lovely stitches you can hand knit that a machine like this will never be able to replicate), but I have chronic pain issues that severely limit how much hand knitting I can do.

**UPDATE**

I knitted another one of these using the Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo Stripes in the Bright Stripe colorway on my Addi 22, which has a row counter on it (hallelujah!!). On the Addi, I was getting about 5 rows per inch. At that gauge, it takes 360 rows to make a 72-inch-long tube, so that's how many rows I made the Bright Stripe cozy, plus leaving extra yarn at each end to crochet the edging and straps. (I forgot that I usually prefer to make the tubes more like 74 inches long to better fit the CPAP air hose ... so in that case the knitted tube should have been 370 rows. Mental note for next time!!)

Making a tube this long works best if you can mount your knitting machine on a table where the work can hang free down the middle, such as my Workmate table shown in the photos. Even at that height, I still had to tuck in the end of the tube for about the last 100 rows to keep it from dragging on the floor.

The mask-end straps are each 16 chains long, then slip stitch back across the chain to reinforce.

The colors are pretty similar between the Neon Stripes and the Bright Stripe colorways, but I think I like the Bright Stripe better because it doesn't have a black band in between every other color stripe. I guess whichever one would be better just depends on what you want your project to look like. They are both fun and funky colorways.

CPAP Hose II free recipe/pattern

Experimenting with another crochet CPAP hose cover design for 72-inch hose. My brother-in-law is new to using a CPAP and needs something to help make the experience more comfortable for him. This Red Heart Velvety yarn is super, super soft, but also machine washable/dryable, so it should work well.

Using 6mm hook, FSC 16 sts (about 6 inches long), then continue working in continuous rounds. I made the first round after foundation row in SC then switched to HDC to help the rest of the project grow faster. At my gauge two rows of HDC equaled about 1 inch in height. Working this way one skein yielded about 47 inches of tube, a little over half as long as I wanted, so I had to break into a second skein to reach the desired finished length.

I placed a marker to indicate when my tube had reached a length that was about half as long as the finished tube should be (for me this was after 2 rows SC plus 80 rows HDC). It’s important to measure the actual length of your work to determine where you’re at rather than to rely on row counts for length, just to make sure you end up with a finished tube that’s the right size. Once you’ve marked the halfway point, you can fold the tube at the marker as you work the second half to more easily figure the length of the second half. (At least for me this is easier than constantly using a tape measure to figure out where I’m at.)

Continue working until the tube you’re crocheting measures about 76 inches long. In my experience these hose covers work better if they’re a little longer than the hose itself. Switch to 5mm hook and finish with 4 rounds of FPDC/BPDC for a ribbing effect, then fasten off and weave in ends.

For better performance sew a couple of rows of silicone-striped grip elastic to the inside of the hose cover at the ribbed end (cut elastic to 3.5-inch lengths). This will be the end closest to the user. The grip elastic will cinch the cover against the hose, and the silicone grip will prevent the cover from slipping down the hose and away from the user. The whole point of using a hose cover is to keep the cold plastic away from the CPAP user. Well, that and a hose cover cuts down on air noise and prevents condensation buildup.

Placing the grip elastic at only one end also makes it easier to feed a fresh hose into the cover from the end without the elastic when it’s time to change the hose.

CPAP hose sleeve

This is my first attempt at making a CPAP hose sleeve. Even though this is a simple project I looked at some other similar projects to get ideas for how to go about it. I was originally thinking of knitting this seamlessly in the round but decided it would be easier for me to work this first one flat and seam it. 

This yarn and needle combination swatched at about 5 stitches/6 rows per inch. I'm using Big Twist Sincerely Ombres in the Gray Denim colorway and 4.5mm needles.

The CPAP hose end caps are about 3.5 inches in circumference at the widest point and the main hose tubing about 2.75 inches in circumference with a length of 72 inches (6 feet). 

Initially I cast on 15 stitches and worked in 2x1 ribbing for 24 rows/4 inches then switched to stockinette for the main body of the sleeve. But I decided I needed to add a couple more stitches to the sides to act as selvage for when I sewed the sides together to make the tube, so I ripped out what I had done and started over by casting on 17 stitches. The first stitch on each side would be a selvage worked in garter stitch. Again I did 24 rows/4 inches in 2x1 ribbing then switched to stockinette for the main body. I continued in stockinette (plus the selvage stitches) until the length measured about 68 inches, then I finished the other end with 24 rows/4 inches of ribbing.

To seam the length, without breaking the yarn I switched to a crochet hook, chained 1 and then single crocheted the length closed to form a long, thin tube. My thinking was in doing it this way it would be easy to "unzip" the seam and recover the yarn if I needed/wanted to redo this project later.