Crocheted Earphone Wire Tidy

I have a lovely big bag that I use for work. It's massive, so everything I need fits in - lunch (breakfast sometimes!) purse, phone, keys, pens, post, stuff I'm taking in to work, stuff I'm bringing home, you get the idea. The other day I was struggling to find my memory stick so decided to have a little tidy up. That's when I found this:

It's bad, I am ashamed! 

I had seen this lovely little cloth tidy thing here but the table was too messy to get my sewing machine out (I'm ashamed again) so I had a little go at crochet. Once I started I just couldn't stop!

I should say that I LOVE crochet, it's so quick and so easy. I have two more crochet projects on the go at the moment. These took less than 30 minutes each to make, it took me longer to find suitable buttons!

I am assuming here that you can crochet. If not, I recommend looking for an online tutorial or buying The Happy Hooker, Stitch 'n Bitch crochet book. Its great, all the instructions are SO clear and its full of lovely patterns that you will actually want to make. 

Earphone Wire Tidy Pattern

You will need:
A little bit of wool (mine was DK, light worsted, but I really don't think it matters) 
Small crochet hook (mine was 3.00mm which I think is somewhere between a C & D in the US)
A button about 1" in diameter (I guess if your button is smaller you could just make the button hole smaller too)

• Chain 11
• sc in 2nd chain from hook, work 9 more sc to end of chain (10 stitches)
• turn over, chain 1, sc in 2nd stitch then sc 9 to end (check you've still got 10 stitches!)

Now you are going to make the button hole:

• work 3 sc

• chain 4

•  work sc into 5th stitch along 

• work 2 more sc to end
• continue with another 16 rows of sc. (I like to count my stitches at the end of each row because I find it very easy to gain or loose them as I go. Crocheting in circles is much easier!)
• Fasten off
• Sew a button on - you're done!

To make the stripy one I just changed colour every 2 rows. I love it but those ends were a pain to sew in!

To make the Red and Black one in the main picture, just sc all the way round the edge in a contrast colour, doing 3 in the same stitch at each corner. Obviously this one comes out a bit bigger but not much. I just wanted to use that cute little button.

If you look closely at this navy blue one you will see that I gained a stitch somewhere so the button hole end is slightly thinner than the other end. I don't think it matters. (see my note above about counting stitches at the end of each row!)

You might also be interested in:

Grey & Bright Crochet Flowers

Bracelet to Necklace repurpose

Pretty Garden Planters

Padded Camera Strap

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