Booze + Cozy = Coozie

Hi.

It's summer time. Summer time means sitting outside, grilling, biking, and (for me) drinking some delicious beers with my buds.

But sometimes my hand gets a bit too chilly when holding a frosty beverage, and the can starts to perspire, and I kinda wish it could match my outfit... haha... Sometimes a girl (or guy!) needs a coozie. A lovely, felt, hand-stitched coozie.... Are you sold on this idea yet? Want to know how to make one? Lucky you.

And remember, soda cans need some love too! So even if you're not the beer drinking type, you can still enjoy this craftiness.

Okay, let's start:

Here's what you'll need:

-2 or more pieces of felt in nice colors (I prefer a nice wool/acrylic blend)

-Embroidery thread

-A sewing needle

-Scissors

-Ruler

-A 12oz can of your preferred delicious beverage. Don't crack it open until the end! You'll want to be able to use it for reference, this is much easier to do if the can is closed (trust me, I accidentally got a lap full of Tecate once... it's true).

The first thing to do is decide which colors you want for the inside and outside. I chose light pink for the outside and yellow for the inside. I like pastels...

Now cut out a rectangle in each piece of felt. The outside color should be 9" x 4" and the outside color should be 9" x 4.5".

Now fold the inside piece of felt in half and sew a running stitch about a 1/4" in from the edge. Start at one end and finish about 1/2 an inch from the opposite end.

Now's a good time to do any embellishing you want to do on the outside piece of felt. I decided to cut out a heart. I stitched it on and then freehand embroidered the word "beer!" onto it.

Here's a close-up. Not my best embroidery of all time but it gets the point across.

Now take your inside piece of felt and turn it inside out so that the stitching faces the inside of the tube. Place the outside felt over this and pin it in place so that the extra felt from the inside piece sticks out over the top.

See how the sides of the pink felt don't overlap, they just touch? And they meet right over the seam from the yellow felt? See that? Okay, let's keep moving along.

Pick out a nice color of embroidery thread and do an X stitch from the bottom of your coozie all the way to the top of your outside piece of felt. You're bringing everything together now and it should look something like this:

Now fold over that inside layer and use some more nice X stitches to secure that in place like this:

I keep the can of beer handy to pop in and out and make sure my coozie is about the right size. And you're done now! I prefer not to put a bottom piece on in case I'm drinking from a tall can but it would be super easy to do and I'm sure you can figure it out on your own.

Now go make a few more for when you have company over because your friends will be super jealous if you're the only person at your place with a sweet coozie.

Party Time! Excellent!

Ooops

So, I had said I would be posting that Coozie tutorial here umm about a week ago... And it hasn't happened yet. This past week was crazy in the best possible way! But it really didn't allow for any blog time... Logan and I rode the tandem bike over the Williamsburg Bridge (my first time) And saw crazy beautiful views. I watched my friend Brian play bike polo and got super into it. I went to the ocean and was pinched by a crab, got tons of seaweed in my swim suit, and played backgammon (with the travel board I made for Logan 3 years ago!).

Oh and I saw Toy Story 3 in Imax 3D. And it was amazing! And Norel and I went and saw these guys perform:

Gosh, what an awesome week... But now, back to business. I'll be posting that tutorial tonight!!!

Be Back Soon

Hi. I'm going to be gone for a little bit. I'm going to go visit my family and friends in Minneapolis. When I get back I'll have a tutorial on how to make beer can coozies (or "cozies" as some people call them). I hope you'll check back next week.

Here's a sneak peek of what we'll be making...

Have You Heard of Olek?

Art star and crochet master?

I'm not feeling very eloquent this morning so you can just go here for more crazy-coolness.

And if you live in the New York area, there are a few neat events coming up this month...

Check it out!

Above photos are from Olek's website.

Summer Grannies

When I finished knitting my crazy socks the other day I needed a new little project. It had to be small enough that I could work on it on the subway (without annoying the people sitting next to me) and I also felt like I wanted to work with cotton because it's been so hot outside...

I remembered that I had a desk drawer full of balls of DK weight organic cotton. It always seems to go on sale after summer and I always grab a few.

I'm having a really nice time making these granny squares. They make really nice little kitchen towels or fancy washcloths. I think a few people will be getting these as gifts when I go home to Minneapolis next week...

The one below is my favorite. It is made of three similar shades of yellow in the center melting out into green on the edge. I think this one might have to stay with me...

The hook I'm using is a size I, if you're curious. And the squares are just 2 rounds each of 4 colors. If you'd like to learn how to make granny squares you can check out Pip's tutorial here. It's how I learned.

Beach House

What I'm listening to this morning

Perfect Timing!

Today it is a hot and sweaty 92 degrees in Brooklyn, New York and guess what I finished knitting.

My ugly/beautiful wool socks! What do you think?

So, yeah... I really won't be wearing them again for another 3 months or so, but for now the are sitting on my bookshelf for me to pick up and admire. And even though they're so weird and nerdy, I really do love them. I sort of can't believe I made them. My spinning skills have improved so much in the past year. I never thought I would be able to make sock yarn, let alone actually make enough for a pair of socks (I also never thought I would be enough of a nerd to want to do something like this but that's another matter).

And in other crafty news. Siri (of Treehouse Brooklyn fame) and I biked over to the Renegade Craft fair at McCarren Park and it was awesome! There were quite a few vendors I had never seen before and Siri introduced me to a lot of cool artists. And of course, I picked up a few treats:

This beautiful printed tea towel from Enormous Champion. I think I want to hang it on the wall so it will never get dirty (I've just gotta iron it first).

Some lovely merino from Traveling Rhinos in the colorway "Blue Beard". It was quickly transformed into this 2-ply yarn!

Lastly (and most sadly) I got a Moss Bulb from Land Rich and it was so pretty and nice and I was able to bike all the way home without breaking it. Then as I reached in my bag to get the keys to my apartment, the little glass bulb rolled out of my bag and smashed on the sidewalk...

oh well... boo hoo...

p.s. The photo below is not mine. It is from Land Rich's website. I didn't have mine long enough to take a photo of it.... waa