Fauxdori - Knitters' Version

I don't know where I first heard of a Midori-style traveller's notebook  (or fauxdori :)... somewhere on YouTube, I suppose. If you haven't heard of it, such a fauxdori "notebook" is basically a "wrapper" made of leather or another sturdy material, in which you can place your notebooks.
From the start I really liked the idea and I wanted one for myself.

But I also wanted to make one
myself - and I wanted it to have a "knit-look". I searched the Internet a bit, but I didn't find ideas for that.
So, I thought I might try a it with thick felt and random lace.

This blogpost is a brief (!) how-to -  describing how I made my "Fauxdori for Knitters" - it's not a detailed step-by-step tutorial. There are already so many excellent description and videos out there on the internet, that I'd rather link to them.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials

• a thick sheet of felt
• elastic (I used 2mm elastic)
• eyelets and a hammer (I used 5mm eyelets by Prym)
• a charm with one or two holes in it (I made mine with leftover polymer clay (Fimo)
• quite thin yarn that blocks well (I used a "skein" of reinforcement yarn - the yarn that is sometimes hidden inside sock yarn skeins)
• knitting needles - a bit thicker than what the yarn calls for (I used 2.5mm needles)
• notebooks to put into the traveller's notebook - you'll need them as a template - I used A4 booklets since that's a standard size you get everywhere in Germany

Techniques you Need

For me this was rather a thrifty project - so it was great to try out some new techniques

• Knitting random lace: In my blogpost about the lacy ebook sleeve you can find a tutorial on how to knit random lace.
• Grafting lace: Joni Coniglio has written several brilliant post on grafting in general and also on grafting lace - this one and this one.
  I guess this project is perfect to try the stitches (or formulas) because it doesn't really matter if you get one of them wrong - as long as you keep your number of stitches (it is RANDOM lace, after all).

How to Make the Basic Traveler's Notebook

• Cut your felt to size, i.e. as big as the notebooks that are to fit into it, but with about 1.5cm more at each side.
• Mark the middle with a line and on that line mark five dots 0.8mm away from the top, 15mm away from the top,  0.7mm away from the bottom, 15mm away from the bottom, and one right in the middle. 
• Put in 5 eyelets centered around the dots. A video showing how to put in eyelets can be found here on YouTube. 
• Thread your elastic through the holes as shown in this YouTube-video by sealemon at about minute 3'30''. To add some more decore I threaded a charm in first. Knot your elastic. Then cut off excess elastic. Your notebook should now look like this:

How to Create the Lace Decor

Provisionally CO 16 stitches. The provisional cast-on is important if you want a seamless look, i.e. a neverending band.

Knit in a random lace pattern until the strip you've knitted is about twice as long as your notebook (piece of felt) is high when being stretched.

Open the provisional CO and catch the stitches on your second needle. Graft the ends together using grafting formulas for lace grafting. I used this as an opportunity to graft lace for the first time ... and since it was random lace, there was only a small chance to mess this up :)
I used the descriptions in this blogpost by Joni Coniglio to learn the basics of grafting lace - here's another post explaining this topic.

After you have grafted the beginning and end of the band together you have a continuous band of random lace. Block it to size (use your traveler's notebook as a guide) with two knitting needles on top and bottom (see picture above). It will take a little longer to dry, because it now consists of two layers of knitted fabric.

Draw the band over the front part of your notebook - placing it where you like it best. I chose to place it right in the center. With a sharp needle, stitch the lace to your fabric to keep it from moving.

Put in some notebooks and you're done!

This post was featured on OuiCrochet's Fiber Tuesday Link Party No. 64. Thank you!