Buttoned Stethoscope Cozy

Hi all!

I recently came up with another stethoscope cozy pattern. Since the other cozy pattern I made required you to take off the... what is the name of it? The part that's not the earpieces, the part that you place on the patient's chest. Anyway, the other pattern requires that you take that off, put the cozy on, and then put that piece back on, since the diameter of the cozy isn't big enough to allow that mystery-name piece through. But with an afternoon and a bit of thinking last weekend, I came up with the solution. Voila! The Buttoned Stethoscope Cozy. To put it on, you pass the bottom mystery-named piece through the upper hole, and then button all the buttons! You can also pass the earpieces through the upper part, through the bottom, but that's a bit harder.

Buttoned Stethoscope Cozy

See all the buttons? I think it's really fun to pick a bunch of different buttons, but of course you can do all the same buttons if you want to.

Materials:

• Worsted weight yarn (I used TLC Essentials by Red Heart in Color 2958 Falling Leaves)
• yardage: not entirely sure, but if I've done my math right, it's about 75 yards (if you make this and find that it's drastically different, please let me know.)
• Size US 6 DPNs (or a set of straights and DPNs, or straights and a circular to Magic Loop)
• A note about needle size: I knit really, really tightly. I usually have to go up at least 2 needle sizes with anyone else's pattern that I use. Take this into account. 
• 11 small buttons (approx. 1/2 inch in diameter).

Gauge: I don't have the cozy with me (my mom took it with her to work) to confirm gauge, so I used a comparable project that used the same yarn and needle size, which is 5 sts X 7 rows per inch. I will check the gauge of the actual cozy and edit this if it differs.

Pattern:
CO 18 sts. K1, P1  rib for 4 rows.
Next row (RS): K2, yo, k2tog, k14.
Knit 11 rows of St st.

Rep these 12 rows until there are 10 buttonholes, ending with the 11 St st rows.
Knit across the row and join in the round, arranging ndls as follows: 9, 4, 5 sts.
Next rnd: Ndl 1: K1, M1, k to last, M1, K1   Ndl 2: K1, M1, k to end of ndl   Ndl 3: k to last, M1, K1
Knit 1 rnd.
(These incs are essentially the same idea as the toe on toe-up socks.)

Rep these last 2 rnds until you have 42 sts.
K1, P1 rib for 4 rnds.
BO 7 in rib, k7 in rib, BO rem sts in rib. Cut yarn.
Reattach yarn on RS, and K1, P1 rib for 1 1/2 in.
Next row (RS): P1, k1, p1, yo, p2tog, k1, p1.
Work K1, P1 rib for 3 rows. BO all sts.

Sew buttons opposite the buttonholes on the long portion of the cozy, and sew the last button just at the base of the ribbing at the top.

This has only been knit once, by me, so if there are any errors or anything that doesn't make sense, let me know!
Happy knitting! :)


Edit (11/22/12): I've knit this a few times now, so I think the pattern is all right. At least, my new red one turned out fine. 

See all the buttons? I love doing all different buttons. :)

I also wanted to share the mod that I made to my mom's cozy. She likes to keep a roll of medical tape and a few mini-Sharpies on her cozy, so she has easy access to them. So to accommodate that, I made the strap 2 1/2 in. long and moved the top button down, to about where the incs start. Like this:

See the tape? And the mini-Sharpies?

To attach the mini-Sharpies, she put the mini-keyring that they hang on over the first (closest to the earpieces) button on the strap and buttoned it, kind of sandwiching it between the layers of the cozy.
Happy Thanksgiving, and happy knitting!!