Dragonscale Dice Bag for Mika

This is the Dragonscale Dice Bag by Jessie Alameda, a free pattern. It's going to be a belated birthday gift for Mika. I bought 200 iridescent black polycarbonate dragonscales for this project from Michelle's SilverGriffonSkies shop on Etsy. Her scales are so beautiful, durable, and lightweight - they are perfect for this dice bag.

These next two photos are of Mika's two favorite sets of polyhedral dice. The first has holographic lettering, and the second has a geode appearance in the right light. If I do say so myself, these dice are going to look AMAZING with this bag! 😍

Mika's dice with iridescent lettering

Mika's geode dice

My usual supplier for dragonscales is The Ring Lord, but they mainly deal in aluminum/metal scales, and for this dice bag, I wanted something a bit lighter, and I also wanted them to be iridescent. The Ring Lord's scales are wonderful, but I don't think they offer iridescent, so that's why I gave my business to a different vendor this time.

This bag is 52 stitches around, so each scale row required 26 scales. I calculated that I could get a maximum number of 8 scale rows from the 200 scales if I worked 5 rounds of 26 scales and then decreased the bag to be 46 stitches around for 3 more scale rows with 23 scales each. That would have left me with 1 unused scale. But I decided that the bag was already tall enough after working 7 scale rows.

This is the first dice bag that I've actually lined with a sewn-in lining. Even though I'm pretty experienced at sewing, it was still a bit scary to do something new like this. But I'm very pleased with how well it turned out, and I think the finished bag is gorgeous.

With grommet added and lining pinned in place

I bought the dark purple two-tone dress taffeta fabric at Amazon. I think it complements the colors of the dragonscales perfectly. I also bought the black cord and the gunmetal gray cord stopper at Amazon. The yarn is fingering weight Estak Royal Cotton. I used a 3.75 mm crochet hook.

Before adding lining

As you can see in my "grommets test" photo below, I had to experiment with a few different sizes and colors before I figured out which one would look best on this bag. 

Grommets test

 

Butter Mellow pocket scarf

Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,  
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.

That silly "spell" didn't work for Ron Weasley in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as he tried to turn his rat familiar, Scabbers, yellow, but this butter-yellow yarn from my stash knitted up beautifully to make a cozy pocket scarf for Mika and Emmy. 

The sport-weight fiber worked to a gauge of about 4-5 rows per inch. And since I wanted a scarf 80 inches long (to turn up 10 inches at each end for deep pockets, leaving an overall length of about 60 inches), I made the scarf 400 rows long. (Which actually turned out to be a bit too long, but that was OK; I just made the pockets deeper to compensate.) The yarn is an interesting blend of 55% acrylic, 35% rayon, 5% wool, and 5% vinyon (whatever that is!), but the fiber is safe to machine wash and dry, so it's easy to care for.

Cast on with at least 6 rows of waste yarn in a contrasting color to your project yarn, then add your project yarn and crank until you have the desired number of rows. Cast off with another 6 or more rows of waste yarn, then remove project from the machine. Using a 5mm crochet hook, close each end of the tube as shown in this video by Jojo Juju. Fold each end of the scarf until the pockets are as deep as you want and pin them in place with locking stitch markers. Mattress stitch both sides of each pocket and knot securely. Hide all tails inside the tube, and enjoy your new pocket scarf! 

Jojo also has a full video tutorial for how to machine-knit a pocket scarf, which you can view at this link.

The sport-weight yarn is rated a 2, when usually size 4 yarn is used in the circular knitting machines. For me the trick to getting lightweight yarns like that to work in the machine is to maintain a firm tension.

I had just enough yarn left after knitting the scarf to make a matching beanie of 113 rows.

 

School colors hats

OK, I spoke too soon when I said it was time to take a break from making hats. Hats are just such quick and easy projects - and therefore satisfying - so I guess it's difficult to stay away.

Now that we're pretty sure my daughter Mika will finally get to transfer to Academy of Art University in January, I figured she needed an earflap hat to showcase her school pride.

More loom-knitted hats

Here's a black-and-raspberry colored hat knitted on a loom. I wanted to see if I could create a rib-knit hat on the knitting loom, but since the looms all seem to have an odd number of pegs, it's impossible to create a rib pattern - at least, a rib pattern utilizing an even number of stitches.

I tried mixing up the knitted and purled stitches, which resulted in a rather funky looking hat. But my daughter Mika, ever the hipster, says she likes it.

Here's a picture of some simple knitting looms that are widely available in the U.S.

Howarts Houses scarves free pattern

This Slytherin House scarf is Rose Love's Christmas present. (Shhh!!)

Made with Caron Simply Soft yarn (6 ounce skeins) in Dark Sage (green) and Grey Heather (silver), because Slytherin House colors are green and silver. (Rose Love adores Slytherin.)

Knitted School Scarf based on Harry Potter Hogwarts House Colors

Knit pattern by Susan Benitez. Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Pattern may not be sold or duplicated in any form. The written instructions, templates and illustrations are intended for personal, non-commercial use only. PATTERN UPDATED 5/4/2013 to correct errata.

Gauge

Gauge is not critical to this project.

Abbreviations used

k – knit
p – purl
st – stitch

Materials list

Knitting needles size 5 (3.75 mm).
Worsted weight yarn: 2 skeins for primary color A, 1 skein for contrast stripe B); samples were made using Caron Simply Soft solids in 6-ounce skeins.
For Gryffindor House: Autumn Red 9730 (A) and Sunshine 9755 (B)
For Hufflepuff House: Sunshine 9755 (A) and Black 9727 (B)
For Ravenclaw House: Dark Country Blue 9711 (A) and Gray Heather 9742 (B)
For Slytherin House: Dark Sage 9707 (A) and Gray Heather 9742 (B)

Notes

Scarf finished size is approximately 7 inches wide by 66 inches long, not including the 6-inch fringe on each end. The fabric is knitted in a 2-by-2 rib. Gauge isn't terribly important when you're making a scarf, but this ribbed fabric came out to about 6 stitches per inch for me. You can make your scarf narrower or wider, according to your preference, but the total number of stitches cast on must be divisible by 4 for a 2-by-2 rib knit.

Instructions

For scarf: In A, cast on 48 st.

1. Work one of each of the following sections in order (*, **, ***).

* Half-height block in primary color: In A, work 24 rows in 2-by-2 rib (k2, p2).

** Stripes section: In B, work in 2-by-2 rib (k2, p2) for 3 rows. In A, work in 2-by-2 rib (k2, p2) for 6 rows. In B, work in 2-by-2 rib for 3 rows.

*** Full-height block in primary color: In A, work 48 rows in 2-by-2 rib (k2, p2).

2. Repeat ** and *** sections in alternating order 5 times. At this point, your scarf will have 6 full-height block sections and 6 stripes sections (plus one half-height block * at the beginning).

3. Work one more stripes section **, followed by a final half-height block *. Cast off.

For fringe: Cut 52 12-inch lengths of yarn in each color A and B. Hold together 2 strands (1 of each color). Using a small crochet hook, partially pull the strands through at one end of the scarf, just above the casted row. Pull the loose ends through the loop, making sure strand ends are even, and pull to tighten. I like lots of fringe on my scarves, so I tied 26 fringe knots across each end (which was a snug fit all the way across), but you may use fewer (spacing them a bit further apart) if you wish.

Enjoy your new scarf. Now you can show the world into which Hogwarts house YOU have been sorted!


Update: Here's a scarf I made for Silver using Gryffindor House colors.

And a scarf I made for Mika using Ravenclaw House colors.

And here's a scarf I knitted for Montie using Patriot Guard Riders colors. (I actually ended up stealing this one for myself!)

 

And another scarf for Montie following a special alternate stripes configuration that he requested.