Thursday, February 6, 2014

Crafty Thursdays: TARDIS Notebook Cover




TWISTED author Laura K. Curtis stops by Mystery Playground today to tell us how she made the crocheted Police Box notebook cover above AND to give it away. Dr. Who fans will recognize it right away.

You can tell her how much you love this on Twitter @LauraKCurtis. There are details on how to enter to win below. Sorry, U.S. addresses only.


I like to write by hand, not on the computer. But I have two dogs who really like to eat paper. ANY kind of paper. Do they care that they’re shredding the work I’ve spent a week working on? They do not. 

When Deb invited me to come talk about crafty things, I decided it might be time to do something about the problem. So here’s the solution…a TARDIS notebook cover. Because after all, the notebooks that contain your thoughts are much bigger on the inside!

To make this, I used DK yarn (Madelinetosh DK in Betty Draper’s Blues: 1 skein/225 yards for the box, & Stacy Charles “Stella” in Platinum for the windows, and Sirdar Flirt DK in black for the police box stripe) and a 3.25mm crochet hook. It was made to fit my current notebook, but of course since I just pick up notebooks at Target, they’re never exactly the same size. If you want to do one for yourself, you’ll have to alter the pattern size to fit, which should be simple enough. 



For my current notebook (just under 7”w x 10”h), I needed 40 stitches across. (Remember if your notebooks are different to give yourself plenty of room to seam your cover at the end! Don’t skimp, go bigger rather than smaller.)

If you look closely, you can see that when I stitched this I made a couple of mistakes. I think I cleaned them up in the pattern, though. And if you’re not accustomed to the best way to switch yarn colors, which I wasn’t when I created this, having only JUST found it, look at this tutorial.

Row 1: Chain 42

Row 2: hdc in to 3rd chain from hook and then every ch down the line. Turn.

Row 3: ch 2. hdc into every hdc in row below.

Repeat Row 3 enough times to cover your notebook back and about ¾ of the front. So not quite twice as long as your notebook. For me, that was 64 rows. So at the end of row 66, tie off blue.

Row 66 (Police Box Stripe): Switch to black, ch 1, sc in each dc, turn.

Rows 67 - 69: ch, sc in each sc below, turn
At the end of row 69, tie off black and switch back to blue. ***

Row 70: Using blue, ch 3, dc in next 5 scs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 scs, switch to blue & dc into next 2 scs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 scs, switch to blue and dc into next 2 scs, fpdc into next two scs, dc into next two scs, switch to WC & dc into next 5 scs, switch to blue and dc into next 2 scs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 scs, switch to blue and dc into next 5 scs. Turn.

Row 71: Using blue, ch 3, dc in next 5 dcs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 dcs, switch to blue & dc into next 2 scs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 dcs, switch to blue and dc into next 2 dcs, bpdc into next two dcs, dc into next two dcs, switch to WC & dc into next 5 dcs, switch to blue and dc into next 2 dcs, switch to window color (WC) & dc into next 5 dcs, switch to blue and dc into next 5 dcs. Turn.

Row 72: repeat row 70
Row 73: repeat row 71
Row 74: repeat row 70

Row 75: using blue, ch 1, then sc in next 18 dc, bpsc in next 2 dc, then sc in next 18 dc. Turn.

Row 76: Repeat row 70
Row 77: Repeat row 71
Row 78: Repeat row 70
Row 79: Repeat row 71
Row 80: Repeat row 70

Rows 80-81: ch 2, hdc in each dc. Turn.
Row 82: ch1, sc in each hdc. Tie off.

Seam edges together, being sure to fold so that 
1. the seams will be on the inside
2. there’s enough room for the flap to cover your notebook with the black police stripe showing. This means you’re not folding it in half, you’re going about three or four rows down below the black stripe. The one we’re giving away has notebooks slightly too large, because they’re bigger than my older notebooks, so the stripe doesn’t show if you use it with the provided notebooks.


*** at this point, decide whether you want this to be the front or back of your work (WS/Wrong Side or RS/right side. Later, you’ll be doing fpdc and bpdc to make the doors and you want the ribbing to show on the correct side. You can reverse what I have here to make it work out the way you want it--I start with fpdc, but you could start with bpdc.



You can find another crochet project pattern from Laura here


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11 comments:

  1. This is totally awesome and I need to make one since I know how to crochet.

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    1. You absolutely do!! And I am happy to meet another crocheter...everyone else is like "knit, knit, knit".

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  2. Thanks for the great post Laura! What fun this is.

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  3. Great notebook cover. It would go well with my iPhone English telephone booth cover. I don't crochet, so winning would be the only way for me. I could send the pattern to a friend. Think she would get the hint? Glad you discovered a way to keep your dog from eating those potential books we love to read.

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    1. Didn't Laura did a fabulous job? Your friend should totally get the hint, or maybe she'd enter the contest as well and give it to you if she wins.

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    2. The pattern is easy enough, Barbara! I bet your friend could make it if you don't win it!

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  4. I can't get over how crafty you are Laura!

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  5. So cute! Considering I'm all thumbs, I won't be crocheting anything anytime soon. Winning it is the way to go!

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  6. I just need to win because I am not nearly this crafty (but do wish that I was). Very cute project.

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