Hot Child in the City

 

• Project Name: Hot Child in the City
• Pattern Name: Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cosy by Alexis Layton. 
• {This is a Free pattern on Ravelry found HERE.}
• Yarn:125 yards of  Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in the color Wine. 
• Needles: Size 10 double point needles and a cable needle 

My Ravelry project page can be found HERE for anyone interested in greater detail.

I have been wanting to knit a hot water bottle cozy for many years. What could be more comforting then a hot water bottle with a hand knit cozy? So I dug through patterns on Ravelry and came across this one. The pattern is written to have a tie at the top to keep the cozy secure on the bottle, but I preferred the ribbed turtle neck look to the tie down look. I also think having no tie is just more practical for us. Nothing to get lost or separated.

 

The pattern calls for 5 repeats of the cable pattern, but I had a smaller hot water bottle than the one in the pattern, so I did the cable pattern 3.5 times which brought me to the top of the bottle's body. Then I did the k2,p2 ribbing until I was to the to the top of the spout of the bottle, did a knit row as a kind of turn row, and then switched my ribbing to p2,k2 so it would lay nice.

 

I kept ribbing until I had the length of the neck/spout area covered and was back to the body of the bottle, then bound off in the ribbing to keep it nice and neat. 

I am really happy with how it turned out. The yarn is a ball of Knit Picks that was was in my stash for years, so I was able to Stash Bust to make this as well - so that felt good too. 

And I think I may be giving my bottle a test run today. It's so cold out that all the schools in the state are shut down and my boss called me last night and told me I could stay home if I wanted too today. (Uh, yeah I want to stay home!) So it's nearly 11:00 and I am still in my jammies playing on the Internet. Not a bad day after all!

A Cuppa Joe

 

 

 

Our local Target has a Starbucks in it, so after a shopping haul I will occasionally indulge in a nice big cuppa Joe. This last time I pulled out a cozy I knit to wrap around my coffee and it was so icky. You know how stuff gets when it's been in the bottom of your purse too long and even though your pets don't go in your purse somehow (magic?) their hair does go in your purse and will collect on any knit item you carry. So I was a little embarrassed by my hand knit cozy covered in paper scraps and dog hair and decided to make myself some new ones.

 

The Pattern: It is a free pattern on Ravelry called "Woven Cable Coffee Cup Sleeve" by Linda Thach.

The Yarn: I used left over worsted weight Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride 100% wool. I used 21 grams which is about 36 yards (33m) of yarn.

The Needle: I knit this on Size 5 needles, and I used double points. I just thought it would be easier with the cables to have the double points. When I make this again I will do it on straight needles instead of double points, but I will probably keep the dp's handy for the cables and for the provisional cast on.

The results: I really like it. I learned how to do a provisional cast on and then kitchnered the two sides together in the end, although you can cast on anyway you like and then just stitch it together as well. I had never done a cable like this before either, so it was fun to learn a new cable. I almost always hold my stitches the wrong way when I cable, and this was no exception. I had to rip out after a pattern repeat and start over. (Why do I find Front and Back so confusing?) Anyway - now that I have made this once I am eyeing other left over balls of yarn and thinking about how many coffee cozies I could have in a week or two! What else can you make with 40 yards of left overs?

 

My project notes on this can be found on my project page on Ravelry "Pretty Pink Cable Cozy".

 

 

A Hat!

 

This was almost an instant hat and I am so happy I did it!

I have been admiring this pattern on Ravelry for a while now. The pattern is for Spud & Chloe and was created by Susan B. Anderson and is called "Slope Hat". I had avoided it for awhile because:

 

* It's not available as a download.

* Spud and Chloe charge kind of a lot for their patterns. $8.00 for a hat pattern is a little hard to justify for me.

* The yarn for their patterns is also expensive. Outer runs around $16.00 and you get 60 yards. Ouch.

 

So I kind of resolved myself to just admire the pattern and never make it. Then I clicked on a link for kpixie on Ravelry and found out I could get the hat and pattern for less than the cost they normally charge for just a ball of the yarn. I ordered it almost instantly! I didn't have a choice in the color of the yarn, but I was ok with the Hedge Green. I really liked the deal I got from kpixie, the yarn came very fast and they offer some great deals on their site. (I will be shopping there again!)

 

So I cast on with size 15 7" circulars and would have finished it in one sitting if I hadn't been so darn tired. I made myself stop when I got to the point I needed to switch to double points and finished it off the next morning.

 

I really like the yarn! It's superwash wool and cotton and it felt almost soapy to me when I was knitting (I can't find any other way to describe the texture - Soapy was how I described it to my hubby.) I love how it lays in the pattern, the cable looks really nice. The hat fits really well and I know I will wear it a lot this winter.

I am already looking through my stash for more yarns to work this pattern in. It only used 50 yards of the Outer! I have a fantasy of making several more in outer and then making something out of all the left over 10 yard chunks. We will see. I am pretty sure my yarn budget is already destroyed for 2013.....