Crocheted Car Accessories & Striped Seatbelt Cozies

My husband & I have been a 1 car family since we were dating.  Somehow, this always worked for us.  For a while we worked near one another during the same shift, later I walked to work and he took the car to his job, and after that I started working from home.  This helped us save money, and was good for the environment, but over the past year it has been hard.  With his job further away from the house, and me often handling our errands and things like taking the dog to the vet, it seemed time to get a second car.  He chose the Fiat 500e, an all electric vehicle which he can charge at home and work, and we could afford to buy outright.  That left me to inherit our cheerful little red Prius-C.

Since it became mine in August, I've been wanting to make it a bit more 'me' that I did when it was a shared vehicle.  So I have been working over the last few weeks to create some crocheted accessories for it, including a steering wheel cover, shifter knob cozy, and finally some seat belt cozies.  The steering wheel cover was made from Sylver Santika's Steering Wheel Cozy pattern with I Love This Cotton! yarn in black, burnt sienna & strawberry violet.  If you give the pattern a go, be sure to pay close attention to the pattern, which requires specific gauge sizing, and three different hook sizes.  If you're not careful about the gauge, you could end up with a cover that is too loose and slides around while you drive.

I made up the pattern for the shifter knob, without paying much attention.  The center circle is a granny circle, similar to the one found HERE. After that I worked a few rows of sc in the round, and finished with 2 rows of dc, in which I didn't connect the ends with a slip stitch, but rather simply turned the work and crocheted in the opposite direction, decreasing as necessary to try to get the right size for my shifter knob.  There was some trial and error, and frogging of stitches, before I got it to the right size.  Once I was happy with it, I put it onto the knob, then used the tail of the yarn to stitch those last two rows closed around the shaft.  The yarn was the same I Love This Cotton!, with the addition of the color pewter.

Finally there were the seat belt cozies.  Being very short, I often have problems with seat belts cutting into my neck, and so I created some nice soft cozies to keep from being scratched while I drive.  I went with a fun striped pattern and mismatched buttons to increase the crafty girl vibe.  I've written out the pattern below.

Striped Seat Belt Cozies

Skill Level: Easy

Materials:
-50 yards of worsted weight yarn in 4 colors (per cozy)
-4.5mm crochet hook
-yarn needle
-scissors
-five 1/2" or 5/8" buttons per cozy
-hand sewing needle
-button thread

Notes:
-Fits standard 2" wide seat belts.
-Written in US crochet terms
-When changing colors, you can stitch over the tail of the new yarn, leaving less ends to weave in.
-This pattern follows the color scheme for the black cozy pictured below.  You can make each cozy a different color, or keep them all the same to suit your tastes.

Abbreviations: 
Ch = chain
Hdc = half double crochet
Dc = double crochet

Color A: Black
Color B: Red
Color C: Grey
Color D: Purple

Instructions:
Row 1: With color B chain 22. Hdc in 3rd ch from hook. Hdc in each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 2: Change to color A. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. NOTE: Ch 2 does NOT count as hdc from here on. (21 hdc)

Row 3: Ch3, turn work. Dc in same st, ch 1 and skip next hdc to form buttonhole. Dc in remaining sts across. (20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp)

Row 4: Ch 2, turn work. Hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 5: Change to color C. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 6-8: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 9: Change to color D. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 10-12: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 13: Change to color B. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Rows 14-16: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 17: Repeat row 5. (21 hdc)

Rows 18-20: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 21: Repeat row 9. (21 hdc)

Finish off and weave in ends.

Sew on five 1/2” or 5/8” buttons. Fold over your seat belts and button closed.