17 January 2007

The Wacom stylus saga

I use my computer a lot. All the time. And I use a Wacom Graphire drawing tablet instead of a mouse. And I use it a lot. All the time. (They're much easier on your hands than a mouse if you're prone to hand problems, by the way, and also the tool of choice for graphic designers).

There's a little rubber grip / cushion thingy around the stylus, which rips and breaks. I don't want to spend $30 each time it disintegrates on buying a new stylus. But, as you can, see, this one has really had it.



Then I had a sudden brain wave - knit a new one! It took a couple of goes, but eventually I got the number of stitches right...



Here it is in action - and it's been pretty good on the whole.



Here's the pattern :

Tiny WACOM stylus jumper

Use 4ply sock yarn (this one was hand-dyed by my dear dotter)
and 2 mm DPNs

Cast on 10 stitches (this is the front edge of the stylus).
Knit in the round for about 10 rows.
Make a hole for the main button on the stylus : cast off 1 stitch.
Knit back and forth (ie not in the round) for about 5 or 6 rows.
Then cast on 1 stitch, and rejoin / knit in the round.
Knit until end of piece, about another 8 or 9 rows.
Cast off, and darn in ends. You're done!

It's best to try it on the stylus as you go, to get the best fit.
Use a non-fluffy yarn, as you don't want fluffy bits getting into the the pen. I gave my cover a bit of a hair cut once it was finished, to trim away any longish fibres.

You could quite possibly leave out the button hole, and just click it through the cover. The main problem with this is locating the button under the cover - but I may well try this for my next one. It's a bit less fiddly.

I only made a hole for the main button, as I don't tend to use the smaller button behind it at all.

You can have one for each day of the week (if you can be bothered ;)

4 comments:

  1. Top marks for inventiveness, Jejune. Now you can have them in a variety of colours to reflect your mood or your intention.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's a small button? I hadn't even noticed! This is a great idea: soliciting the help of a knitter as I type this :-)

    Pup (non-knitter)

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