Thursday, December 28, 2006

Keep Your Wine Cozy


Here in this temperate clime, what better use for thick wool than a cozy that will keep your wine cool at the beach? These wine cozies turned out to be fast, fabulous gifts that'll keep your white wine cool and your red wine cozy.

You'll need some Lamb's Pride Bulky, or other wooly yarn that'll knit to the same approximate guage. This is a good project for using up scraps, too. The charcoal gray cozy pictured here is made with a double strand of Lamb's Pride Worsted, but it felted up to a thinner fabric in the end product than the bulky - still perfectly fine, though. Choose your own color scheme - I had in mind the balmy days of, oh, November of aught-six here in San Diego, but any others will be just lovely, I'm sure.



Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky - partial skeins in as many colors as you want.
Needles: Size 13 dp, or size to give you proper guage
Gauge: 2.5 sts/in (approximately - not critical!)

With your main color, cast on 8 sts and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist.

First, knit the base:
k 1 round.
*k1, m1, repeat from * to end. 16 sts.
k 1 round.
*k2, m1, repeat from * to end. 24 sts.
k 1 round.
*k3, m1, repeat from * to end. 32 sts.
k 1 round.
*k4, m1, repeat from * to end. 40 sts.
k 1 round.

Now turn the corner:
purl 2 rounds.

Now head up the sides:
knit, knit, knit, changing colors when the mood strikes you.
Continue until the sides measure about 10.5" from the purl ridge to the top, and bind off.

Weave in ends, and felt! Check your work from time to time, opening up the inside to keep it from fusing together and pulling it into the approximate shape you need. As you get closer, have a bottle of wine on hand to test the fit.

Once it's wine bottle size, pull it onto a bottle and yank it into shape (a little snug is good - it'll be perfect when done blocking). Leave it until the sides are dry, then remove the bottle and turn the cozy over to let the bottom finish drying.

Voila!



PS I'm entering these in the Whiplash competition for gifts! Update: I won!



Copyright 2006 Lydia McNeil - You may not use this pattern for profit or reproduce it for profit; you may use it to knit for yourself, for others, or most certainly for charity, but not to sell.

18 comments:

Stephanie said...

What a great idea!!

Think I have time to knit one for a New Year's Eve hostess gift?!

Windansea said...

You have time to knit one....it's the drying! I was sorely tempted to dry one of these with the hair dryer at one point!! Lydia

Anonymous said...

Wow, this cozy is absolutely fantastic! Thanks for sharing the pattern - I'll definitely try it someday soon, I'm sure it'll come in very handy!
Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous pattern, wow!

Happy new year!!

Windansea said...

Thanks dipsy! It's so fast - it's a good gift!! Lydia

Windansea said...

Thank you ulrika! I've already gotten a request for more from one of the people who got one! Lydia

Anonymous said...

The Cozy is beautiful. Thanks for the pattern.

Thomasean

Angela :o) said...

Thank you so much for posting this pattern! I'm making a KIP bag from it (I'll add grommets/felted I-cord)

I was wondering what the 10.5" of unfelted knitting felted to? The final height.

I need a 13" final bag...A girlfriend told me to knit 26 and it'll felt down to 13. Does that sound right to you?

Thanks for the mentoring.
-Ang

Anonymous said...

My mom & I just made a couple of these as Chritmas gifts. They are so cool!!! Thanks for the great idea!

Windansea said...

Hey ang, if only I had kept one of those things. I guess if you look at a wine bottle...if you look at the picture you can see where it landed near the neck of a standard-shape bottle. Does that help? I need to knit up some more of these! Lydia

Windansea said...

Hi oatiep, thanks!! I get a lot of requests for these. I have to knit some more soon - Lydia

Anonymous said...

Hi - just wondering - is this knit on double pointed needles or a circular needle?

Windansea said...

Hi Ann, I used 13 dpn. But you use whatever worked for you - I think the circumference is too small for a circular, but you could use one doing magic loop. Lydia

Mychawd said...

I've just got to have one of my own. Thanks for sharing!!!
~Steph

Mimi said...

This is very cute!

Shane MacRhodes said...

Tis the Season.
I found this pattern via Ravelry and am excited to try it. I'm pretty new still to knitting so am unclear on a couple things- I get how the base is made but not sure what you mean by "now turn the corner: purl two rounds". How do I make that transition from flat bottom up around to the sides? Haven't done that before.

Thanks

Windansea said...

Hi Shari, when you purl those rounds without doing any more increases, it'll make a "turning edge" that'll bring you up the sides of the cylinder. Just try it and you'll see what I mean! Lydia

lobell said...

Lovely pattern, but I am struggling with the following (for days now)...ashamed to finally have to ask but here goes.... I cannot figure out how to joing in the round the first 8 stitches.... any recommendations? I'm fairly new to knitting. Cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. I can do it with longer starts on circular needles. Have not done "magic loop" yet.

Thanks