Jarlshof Phone Cosy Knitting Pattern Inspired by Ancient Neolithic Amulet

Jarlshof phone cosy

This little phone cosy fits an old-style (not smart/I) phone, but you can easily make it bigger to suit any phone. Make it wider by increasing the pattern repeat - it's an 8 stitch pattern, so any multiple of 8 stitches will work: to make it longer you could increase the number of plain rows (e.g. the cream rows), or lengthen the rib section at the top, or repeat one or more of the pattern rows, as you like! The pattern was inspired by a Neolithic carved bone amulet found at the archaeological site Jarlshof, at the southern tip of Shetland, where people have lived for over 50o0 years. The amulet is carved with geometric patterns that are so similar to Shetland knitting styles that it's hard not to wonder about the passage of time and the passing on of traditions. I knitted it in Shetland wool, in vibrant but natural colours that remind me of Jarlshof, and which would surely have been recognised by all the people who've lived there over the years : dark green for seaweed on the shore; orange for osytercatcher bills and scallop corals; pale cream for the sandy bay. More than 50o0 years ago, someone carved this design on a piece of bone, probably to make an amulet. Was it worn every day, strung on a leather thong around someone's neck? I love the thought that the same pattern is being carried around today, keeping safe one of the modern tools we can't do without. Yarn: Shetland 2 ply: colours in sample: cream: mixed orange; green Needles: 3.5mm Gauge: 7 stitches and 9 rows to 1 inch

Directions:

Cast on 32 stitches (or multiple of 8 stitches, to fit your phone) Work chart - reading from bottom to top and right to left\*. At the end of the chart, kitchener stitch (graft) the stitches together. \* For a fastening at the top, you can choose: leave as charted, and when finished, either sew α popper fastening inside; or knit and attach a button on one side and a short i-cord on the other. Or, as I did in the example, make a button hole in row 4 of the chart, in the centre of one side, by a yO, K2Tog (yarn over, knit 2 together), and sew on a button on the inside of the other side of the cosy.

Neolithic carved bone amulet (photo of Historic Scotland booklet)

Jarlshof, Shetland

Pattern chart for Jarlshof phone cosy Key Colour 1 (green), knit Colour 1 (Green), purl Colour 2 (orange), knit 7 Colour 2 (orange), purl OColour 3 (cream), knit