TMCs: Tape Measure Covers

Introduction:

Hi and welcome! Here's a tutorial for a seven rosette TMC (tape measure cover) pictured below. It's a fun and fast project—done in one sitting. 

Warning: Making TMCs can be addictive. I know because I have now made over 40 of them in a very short time.

This "addiction" all started because one of my fiber friends, maryootsy, kept coaxing me to try a flower pattern created by JuleeQue.* Well, I didn't have one of the little retractable tapes to execute it, so Mary finally sent me two of them all the way from Michigan and that meant there wasn't any excuse left not to try Julie's free pattern. (Link provided at the end of this blog page.) 
      [*ravelry names]

Once I made Julie's single flower TMC, I was off and running with all kinds of ideas—flowers, sweet treats, fruits, veggies, even a frying pan with bacon, eggs and pancakes. The possibilities were seemingly endless.

For some time I wondered what I would offer as a pattern here on my blog and then a few days ago, when I was completing a sweet little girl's knitted set of mittens and a hat and wanted to jazz up the mittens, I came up with crocheted rosettes at the wrists and it clicked. That's what I would share—a rosette TMC. 

Description:

The instructions given here are for a tape measure cover with seven crocheted rosettes on the top like the one pictured above. The crocheted main body will just be a springboard, however, because once you crochet the bottom, sides and top to cover the retractable tape measure, you will have the basis to make all kinds of TMCs. Just let your imagination run free—that's what I did. You can see some of my one-of-a-kind TMCs in a later photo on this page. 

What You Will Need:

• A small (2 inch diameter) retractable tape measure.

• Yarn in various colors: regular 4 ply yarn for this pattern, 3 ply is best for the leaves and some of the rosettes**

• Crochet hook, size G or F, depending on the yarn

• Scissors

• Tapestry needle and a sharper needle with a larger eye, if you plan to stitch on your rosettes, rather than glue them

• Glue gun or heavy-duty glue

** For U.S. residents, you can find little retractable tape measures for 99 cents in the notions department at Hobby Lobby. Other possible sources: some dollar stores carry them; a box of 20 can be ordered from JoAnn's, but be sure to use a coupon for percents off to defray the cost. 

*One of the advantages of creating small projects, such as this, is that you can use up bits of yarn. Even if you decide to use yarn from your large skeins, one TMC takes so little, you will have plenty left for big projects.

Making the TMC body:

Foundation, Bottom

Ch 4, slip st to form a ring.

Round 1: Ch 2. For most yarns you will hdc into the ring 12 times. Sl st to the top of the first hdc. If you are using a heavier or coarser yarn, such as Red Heart Super Saver, you will need to do fewer hdc’s to start. If you are using a finer yarn, such as sock yarn, you will need to make more hdc’s into the ring to start.

Round 2: Ch 2, hdc into the same st. 2 hdc’s in the tops of each of the st’s around. Sl st join/end the round. If you are crocheting with a heavier yarn, you might need to assess if you will need to make the next row hdc’s or sc’s.

Round 3: Ch 2, hdc into the same st. *(1 hdc into the next st, 2 hdc’s into the following st). Repeat from * around. Sl st to join. If you are using thinner yarn, you will likely need to add a row of sc’s after round 3 to make the circle large enough to accommodate the 2 inch (5 cm) diameter of the retractable tape measure.

SIDE

Row 1: Working in the back loops of the last row, hdc’s around minus three st’s evenly placed. In other words, you will reduce this round by 3 sts. DO NOT JOIN when you reach the end of the row. The purpose of not joining is that an opening is being left for the end of the tape to protrude.

Row 2: Ch 2, turn so that the wrong side is facing and hdc in the tops of each of the st’s around. (See photo right.) If you are crocheting with a thinner yarn, you may need to add a row of sc’s after row 2.  Join the last st to the starting st with a sl st to join. Cut yarn and secure tail.

Place tape measure inside with the retractable button on the bottom and with the pull tab protruding from the side opening created for it. (See photo left which is the inside of the piece.)

Foundation, Top:

You are going to make the top the same as the bottom. No sides on the top piece. When done, leave a yarn tail, about 20 inches (50 cm) long, which will be used to whip the top piece to the already completed bottom and sides with the tape inside. (See photo right.)

For future TMCs, if you are decorating the top, don’t whip together until you assess whether or not it will be easier for you to decorate the top while it is separate.

Leaves:

It is preferable to use a slightly lighter weight yarn for the leaves. These leaves were made using Red Heart Soft yarn which is almost the same as sports weight (3 ply) yarn. Using your F hook, if you have one, ch 9. Sl st in third st from hook, sc in next 2 st, hdc in the next 2 sts, dc in the next st, 4 hdcs in the last st. Now you are going to go back up the other side to start or tip of the leaf. Hdc in the next st, sc in the next 2 sts, sl st in the next st. Cut yarn and with the yarn tail of about 10 inches (25 cm), make a sl st into the top. 

With your needle, bring the yarn back up to the front just under the leaf tip and make stitches along the center to the base of the leaf. Backstitches will make a nice stitch down the center (see photo right) plus end your yarn at the base end where you can easily tie it off without it being seen on the underside when you glue it in place. If, however, you want to stitch your leaf to the top of your tape measure, you would leave yarn tails for this purpose.

Rosettes:

You will need 7 rosettes for the top of your tape measure. If you have slightly lighter weight yarns, such as sports weight (3 ply yarn), it will be best to make all or some of the rosettes from this yarn. If not, your rosettes might be a little large for the top. Even if you can make some of 3 ply and some of 4 ply, it would help. For each rosette, using your G hook, ch 12. Then make 2dcs in the third ch from the hook and 2 dcs in each ch to the end. The rosette will naturally curl like the photo in the left. This is how it looks without doing anything to it. With your yarn tail and tapestry needle, stitch the rosette with a few stitches so that it stays together. If you plan to stitch the rosettes on the top, leave yarn tails. If you plan to glue or glue gun, fasten off your ends.

You might want to make more than the seven rosettes so you can choose which ones seem to go best. Then generally position them to see how they look before transferring to your tape measure, like in this photo below.

Assembly:

Place your leaves in an arrangement that seems satisfying and attach them first by gluing or tacking into place with yarn ends. Next attach your center rosette. This one is the largest of the rosettes in the final ones chosen. (It wouldn't have worked well to be an outer rosette because of the size.) After the center rosette is secure, place the remaining 6 rosettes around it. All done!

Variation:

Another way to make rosettes or roses, is from strips of felted wool rolled up and then attached with needle and thread at the base. Actually, I made these before the crocheted kind but, knowing that not everyone has felted wool from old sweaters in abundance, as I have, I came up with the crocheted version. However, you might want to see how beautifully this variation of wool roses turned out. Most of the leaves are simply cut from felted wool but a few are crocheted. Nice, huh?! 

Varieties:

Here are about a third of the TMCs I have made. The free pattern by JuleeQue is the rose, upper left between the frying pan and the turquoise hat. I sent this one to maryootsy because this is the one she wanted me to try. Other TMCs in this photo: oreo cookies, cherry pie, lemon, orange, grape (2), watermelon, cupcake, dog, flower with a yellow button center and the frying pan complete with breakfast.

CLICK HERE for Julie's Ups A Daisy TMC

Patterns on Etsy:

I have an inexpensive pattern for making the grape, watermelon and citrus TMCs in two of my Etsy shops. Here are the links.

CLICK HERE to access my fabriq shop.

CLICK HERE to access my 2Good2Eat shop.

Fanciful Flower Potholders

Introduction: These Fanciful Flower Potholders are made of 100 percent dk weight cottons in bright and bold colors. Cotton is the preferred yarn for potholders because acrylic yarns can melt when handling hot pans or dishes.

What to Expect: Your first Fanciful Flower potholder may take a little longer but after that, you can probably crochet one in under two hours. The finished potholder will measure about 7—7.5 inches across.

Delights-Gem's Difficulty Rating: Easy

Background: While leading my first CAL (crochet a-long) using a different potholder pattern I learned that, while I prefer finer and medium density cottons, most of the participants preferred denser cottons such as Lily's Sugar 'n Cream, Pisgah's Peaches 'n Creme, and Lion Brand Lion Cotton to make their crocheted potholders. I had to modify that earlier pattern so everyone could create potholders no matter what yarns or threads they were using. Since that experience, I decided to develop a pattern designed just for users of heavier cottons. The Fanciful Flower Potholder is the result. No modifications for crocheting this potholder are offered for other cotton weights. Here is a photo of some popular U.S. brands of cottons.

Objective: The purpose of this blog page is to lead crocheters through the creation of one (or more) of these Fanciful Flower Potholders. To that end, written pattern instructions and photos are provided.

This Fanciful Flowers Potholder pattern is copyrighted. You are welcome to use it with these guidelines: Be sure to attribute this source when posting or presenting potholders made from this pattern and refrain from publishing or selling the pattern or representing it as your own. Otherwise, no other restrictions apply. Enjoy making these for selling, sharing, gifting or your own personal use.

Supplies: You will need the following materials and tools to complete this project.

• 3—4 different colors of cotton yarn. (Heavier yarns such as Lily's Sugar 'n Cream, Pisgah's Peaches 'n Creme, and Lion Brand Lion Cotton.)
• H hook (5mm)
• scissors
• tapestry or yarn needle (or you can substitute a small size crochet hook to fasten yarn ends)

For the example potholder in this tutorial, these are the colors and brands used:

• A: White (Pisgah's Peaches 'n Creme)
• B: Hot Purple (Lily Sugar 'n Cream)
• C: Hot Grape (Lily Sugar 'n Cream)
• D: Sage Green (Lily Sugar 'n Cream)

A few notes before starting: There is a lot of flexibility in the making of this potholder. That is, the exact number of stitches per round does not have to be absolute and changes in color can be made after any completed petal rounds.

The potholder (above) is the featured one for this tutorial. It has 3 hot purple petal rounds; three hot grape petal rounds; 1 sage green petal round and finally a scalloped edging of white.

Let's get started!

The starting point will be the back, or foundation, of the potholder on which the petals will be crocheted later. This part is all one color (color A) and all one stitch (rounds of half double crochets). The backside of this foundation potholder becomes the back of the potholder. The petals crocheted on this foundation make the potholder thick enough to be extra insulated for handling hot pans which means an additional back will not be necessary.

Foundation: With color A (white) and an H hook, ch 4. Sl st to the beginning ch to make a loop.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as first hdc), 8 hdc's in loop (9 total). DO NOT join. You will be crocheting one large, continuous spiral through round 8, you will work in BACK LOOPS, only. 
If you are unsure what is meant by a back loop, see the photo to the right in which a wooden skewer is placed into the back loop. The front loop is just under the skewer.


Place a marker in the first stitch of each round. On even numbered rounds, you will be finishing the round in the starting st. Simply remove the marker, work the round as indicated, then replace the marker in the first st of the next round. This will allow each future petal round to complete a full circle so that the petals move up a straight line.


NOTE: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE EXACT NUMBER OF STITCHES AT THE END OF ANY/ALL OF YOUR ROUNDS. THESE NUMBERS ARE ONLY SUGGESTIONS. THE PETALS DO NOT DEPEND UPON EXACT COUNTS IN YOUR ROUNDS. THIS IS A VERY FLEXIBLE AND FORGIVING PATTERN.

Round 2: 2 hdc's in back loop of ch 2 and in back loop of each hdc around, do not join, 2 hdc in the first st of this round. (20 st)

Round 3: *hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st, repeat from * around, ending with hdc in last st. (28 st)

Round 4: *2 hdc in the next st, hdc in next 2 st, repeat from * around, ending with 2 hdc in last st, hdc in first st of this round. (38 st)

Round 5: hdc in next 2 st, *2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 3 st, repeat from * around. (46 st) 

Round 6: *2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 4 st, repeat from * around, ending with hdc in last st, hdc in first st of this round. (57 st)

Round 7: hdc in next 3 st, *2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 5 st, repeat from * around. (66 st)

Round 8: *2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 6 st, repeat from * around, ending with hdc in last 2 st. (76 st) At the end of round 8, sc in next 2 st through back loops and then sl st in the next 2 st through both loops. This will help smooth out the end of your circle.


After 8 rounds, the foundation part of the potholder should measure between 6.25 and 6.5 inches across. The finished potholder will be about an inch larger when a final scalloped edge is completed.

Petals

Round 1: Starting at the first front loop at the center of the foundation potholder, attach Color B (Hot Orange) with a sl st. *In the next front loop: 5 dc's. Next front loop: sl st. Repeat from * around. 


Please note: ROUND 1 IS THE ONLY PETAL ROUND THAT YOU WILL CROCHET INTO ALL OF THE FRONT LOOPS. In all other petal rounds you will skip every other front loop.

Rounds 2—3: Continuing in a spiral, *skip the next front loop, 6 dc's in the next front loop, skip the next front loop, sl st in the next front loop. Repeat from * around.

Tips: 

• Change colors AFTER a completed round. 

• When joining a new color, join with a sl st in the last sl st of the previous color.

• While crocheting your petal rounds, you will need to scrunch up your work with your other hand to work the petal stitches. Handle your work in whatever way will allow you to crochet the petals into the loops. It is flexible and will lay flat when you smooth it at the end.

Rounds 4 and beyond: Continuing in a spiral, *skip the next front loop, 7 dc's in the next front loop, skip the next front loop, sl st in the next front loop. Repeat from * until you have one complete round of hdc's left. 





Photo on the right: This is the potholder with three colors: two purples and one green round. The only round left is a scalloped edging of white.


DO NOT make petals in the front loops of the final round. Instead, go through both loops when making the scalloped edge, as described next.


Final round (scalloped edge): Attach color A (your foundation color) to the top of your potholder with a sl st in both the front and back loops and leave a tail of 24 inches. (You will need this tail after you complete the round to assist in making a strong hanging loop.)  *Skip the next st, 7 dc's in the next st, skip the next st, sl st in the next st. Repeat from * around. 


By crocheting through both the front and back loops, your scallops on the final round will lie flat, which is what you want them to do. The petals stand up a bit; the scalloped edge lies down.


When you get back to the beginning of this scallop round, it's okay if there is a slight separation between the first and last scallops because this is where your hanging loop will go. Pick up the long starting tail of yarn from and chain 11 or 12 using both strands of yarn together. To complete the hanging loop, sl st to the potholder near the start of your chain. Secure yarn ends.


Secure all of the rest of your yarn ends, if you haven't done that already. You will find that hiding yarn ends will be easy by camouflaging them in or under petals. 


 All done! Wasn't that easy?






Special Thanks: to braydenbugsmoms for pattern testing and extra pattern support and to happyscraps for clarification and improvement of the foundation rounds. 



EXTRA: Flower Centers
Maybe you have made one of the potholders and now you are ready to extend your creativity with something a little beyond the basic potholder. How about make it pop with a special center? Here are some close-ups of some Fanciful Flower Potholder centers. The two on the top row feature a ring of French knots to simulate pollen. The two flowers on the bottom row feature (left) a round of clusters, instead of hdc's and (right) a circle of chain stitches going round and round in a spiral.

Here's a close-up to the left of one that I am working on so you can see the French knots at the center. Normally when you embroider your needle goes straight down and comes out the back. But because your back side is visible when done, it will be important that you DO NOT go straight down and have any work showing in the back. 


What I did to make the yellow only show on the front was to knot my cotton yarn and, because my center was already going to be knots, I inserted my needle sideways under/through a hdc post and made the knot appear on the right side to blend in with the French knots I was about to make. Then every time I made a French knot I also went under/through a post so that the yarn never penetrated the backside of my piece. I made about two dozen French knots here and then secured my yarn end. Now the petal rows can be started.


Here's an important tip: Besides being mindful to make your embroidery appear only on the front side, the other important tip is to embellish your center BEFORE you start your petal rows. Take it from me (because I did this backwards once) do it first. It is just too difficult to fancy it up after you have started crocheting into the front loops.


5/5/2012: Someone contacted me to say that there is a 1946 pattern that I "stole" and claimed for myself. I didn't. This anonymous person also sent me the link to the pattern so I looked it up and found that, while it is round and has petals, it is constructed very differently. Anonymous person, please check this 1946 source more closely in comparison and you will see how different these patterns are from each other. Also,if you check my blog further, you will see I attribute sources; I don't steal.