This is a set of notes on how to knit and assemble your own knitted weighted companion cube. I have tried to write it in a straightforward way for experience and inexperienced knitters alike. My goal is for everyone reading to understand how the cube is knit and assembled, without necessarily having the exact techniques called for yet.

Questions to the comments may be answered.


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

If you knit and want to try or perfect: stranded knitting (epecially three-color), steeking, or seaming, this is an excellent piece.

The pattern:
Supplies:
25g 2-ply jumper wool pink (Jamieson & Smith 95)
50g 2-ply jumper wool light grey (Jamieson & Smith 203)
50g 2-ply jumper wool dark grey (Jamieson & Smith 54)

long circular needle
tapestry needle for seaming

(optional) sewing machine for reinforcing
(optional) crochet needle for reinforcing

Notes:
This pattern is designed to take advantage of the fact that jumper wool sticks to itself very well. You can substitute heavier wool for a bigger, bulkier cube, but keep in mind that the middle of the cube has three strands running through it.

There are three major brands of jumper wool: The one I used (color codes supplied) Jamieson & Smith, which is available from online suppliers in the US including Schoolhouse Press. The cheapest (although not always fastest) way is often to call J&S and order direct. They are nice, as are the people at Schoolhouse Press.

Jamieson''s is the other sticky jumper wool from the Shetland Islands. I''ve never used it. You''ll need to either see it in person, or trust online color conversion charts like this, which suggests using 102 as the dark grey, 122 as the light grey, and 555 as the pink. Widely available online, retailers include Two Swans Yarns, and Camilla Valley Farms, and you can order directly from them on line.

Finally, knitpicks offers a two-ply fingering weight wool. There are far fewer color options, and I don''t know much about the quality but it should substitute in correctly.

Gauge:
As this is a stuffed cube, and stranded (two or three color) knitting will always have rows and stitches per inch equal, exact gauge is unimportant. You want a firm material, with hole sizes comparable to yarn diameter, or maybe a little larger. I got this kind of gauge with a 2.25mm (US1) bamboo needle. Aim for 6-8 stitches per inch: would you hug this fabric?

Knitting:
The cube pattern is 39 stitches across and 40 stitches high. You''re going to knit 6 sides, separated by 6 stitches of seam material, 3 stitches on each side, then cut them open (This is called steeking. Tutorials here and more than you ever wanted to know here.)

Cast on 6*39 + 6*6 = 270 stitches, join, being careful not to twist. Knit 3 rows alternating dark grey and pink. This is the bottom seam material. Establish pattern: 3 stitches of alternating dark and light grey, 39 stitches in pattern, 6 stitches alternating, etc to final 3 stitches alternating. Continue following pattern until 40 rows are knit. Knit three more rows of alternating pink and dark grey. Cast off.

Notes: your seams can look horrible, they''ll be inside the cube!

For the vertical pink stripes, I didn''t bother carrying the wool, but rather cut ~8-in long strands and knit those up in place. For the heart and horizontal stripes, I carried the pink along with the grey.

Wash and block the cubes—that is dunk them in cold soapy water, rinse them with cold clean water, and pin them out (or lay them flat with rocks or waterproof books/electronics) so that sides are roughly square. This will also felt the strands together slightly, making the material firmer.

When dry, reinforce the seams with a sewing machine (as discussed in above tutorial) as preferred, and cut open with sharp scissors.

Assembly:
Seam the cube together: join the four sides with mattress stitch in light grey, grafting along the side of the pattern so that seams are “inside.” Make sure all the hearts are pointing the same way! Add a bottom using mattress stitch and grafting as applicable. Add a top, leaving cube open on three sides.

Find some foam or styrofoam of the appropriate size. I used a piece of foam from an abandoned couch, other possibilities include packing material, old pillows, or even buying it from a foam store. Another option would be to sew a cloth cube to fit, and fill it with packing peanuts or cottonwool or leadpellets—the cloth is there to keep the smaller grain material from slipping out. Upholstery foam is easily (shockingly easily) cut with an electric carving knife. Be sure to clean both sides of the reciprocating blades when you''re done. When I cut, I aimed for about 1/8th of an inch more on a side (1/4th inch total) so that the finished product was firm yet squishy. Complete top seams and tidy ends by pulling them inside the cover with a needle.













Questions:
Why didn''t you just knit it in the round without the seams? Seams add structural integrity. Without seams, the finished product would tend to be blobby rather than cubical. I also thought the bulk of the seams might suggest the additional shaping of the Companion Cube (and indeed strategic cutting of the seams might do this.)

Doesn''t cutting open your knitting make you nervous? No. Shetland sheep must stick to each other something wicked when it rains, though.



The Enrichment Center reminds you that the weighted companion cube cannot speak. In the event that the weighted companion cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice.

laura said...

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this. I LUBS IT!!!

also, the cake is a lie

January 3, 2008 6:16 PM

Karen said...

Thank You! This is amazing and wonderful and you deserve a real cake, not a lie cake. Oh the Companion Cube goodness burns!

January 3, 2008 7:09 PM

calamity jamie said...

Oh, golly, this is awesome! I''ve been trying to sew a plush one for MONTHS and I am stuck on making the corners 3D, but this looks sharp and awesome!

January 3, 2008 9:24 PM

TheDude said...

Fantastic! this looks way better than mine (well, it was the first thing i knit!)

http://forums.craftzine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=125

January 4, 2008 11:08 AM

iko said...

The Knitted Companion Cube rocks my world. Thank you!

January 4, 2008 2:34 PM

Anonymous said...

why would anyone want to knit this!

January 5, 2008 5:41 PM

HayleyB said...

This is awesome! My husband begs me to make him one now!

January 7, 2008 12:19 AM

palmergranate said...

My boyfriend requests one too! One question: how long is the circular 2.25mm needle you used? Am I correct to assume that you knitted all 6 sides on the same circular needle? Just making sure I understand your awesome pattern-thank you!

January 7, 2008 2:49 PM

wren said...

@palmergranate:
I used a 24" (60cm) circular needle, and knit the 6 cube sides in a grid 3 across and 2 high. But having my knitting squnched up has never bothered me--except for the business of joining it.

Based on that, I don''t recommend it, but instead recommend doing all 6 on a longer needle--the bound off edge stablizes the horizontal direction a *lot*, which makes subsequent assembly far easier.

January 8, 2008 1:06 AM

palmergranate said...

Thanks for the information...I''m now ready to begin!

January 8, 2008 3:09 AM

pinkemma said...

Oh I wish I knitted! That is SO lovely!

January 9, 2008 2:09 AM

*Sarah* said...

Hahaha this is amazing. My boyfriend will love it.

January 10, 2008 2:47 PM

Jess said...

Yaaaaaay!!!!!!!!! I promised a friend I would figure out how to make him one. You ROCK!!!!

January 27, 2008 12:06 PM

Spring said...

You are my hero.

January 29, 2008 2:24 PM

Mister Cow ~ Pinoy said...

i''m really confused right now, according to a comment, it seems like you knitted one giant piece, and cut it up into 6 pieces then sewed them back together forming a cube. but i thought it was six sides.

also, i''m extremely confused on why the pattern shows 39*40, but in the notes you say that you need to add six rows to the sides for stitching or something.

February 5, 2008 11:58 AM

wren said...

Mister Cow ~ Pinoy:

You are correct in your reading: I knit a big object and cut it into the 6 sides (faces) of the companion cube then seamed them back together using mattress stitch. (There are 6 faces to a cube. Each face has 4 edges.)

I did this because seams make sharper edges and corners than plain knitted material--that''s a tube. Socks, for example, don''t have seams. And if you fill a sock with soft stuffing, you don''t get any sharp edges. (So, yes, if I were to knit a Companion Sphere, it would be closer to seamless--this would probably involve knitting over a sphere-shaped stuffing.)

There are other things that this approach deals with--like the fact that all knitting is slightly non-square--but the stability issue was the main reason I went this route.

The chart *is* for the face only. I added 6 stitches between charted faces so that every seam (edge) would have fabric on both sides of the seam. Take a look at clothing--where there''s a seam, a join between two piece of material--high end clothing will have more fabric (and it''ll be more reinforced) on either side of the seam. Cheapo tshirts--no seam fabric, and often, those will sprout holes along seams. It''s more stable and means that there won''t be gapping between (in this case) faces.

I didn''t include the steek stitches because they aren''t typically presented in knitting literature, and because I thought having them would be more confusing.

Less confident knitters might want to add more stitches, to make it easier to sew and cut. Some people steek in stripes, some people in checkerboard patterns. It''s on the inside of the cube so it doesn''t matter, as long as all the colors in the row are represented in roughly equal amounts.

I hope this clears up your questions.

February 6, 2008 3:29 PM

Anonymous said...

First i want to say i enjoy challenges but this is very difficult when the directions don''t even make sense. I feel like the instructions were very difficult to read and understand, for the supplies it said circular needle, just one needle are u sure i really don''t think you can knit that with 1 circular needle, also when you say cast on what is all the #''s exactly how many stitches do i need to cast on that''s why i never attempted this, it just doesn''t make sense. I think if your going to put a pattern out there for the world to use you need to also be able to write a complete pattern guide that allow