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!

Knitting a Circle Scarf

Hey there!

So here it is; my first tutorial. Well, sort of a cross between a tutorial and a pattern... Anyway, I'll do my best here.
I'm going to show you how to knit a circle scarf that is really basic, knits up quickly, but also looks quite chic. I also think it's a great length to be worn long to look kind of fashion-y or double wrapped for warmth. And it only takes one skein of yarn so it makes a great, inexpensive gift! With so many neat things about this scarf, how could you resist making one?

Here's what you'll need:

-1 skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn ( I used the color Cilantro)

-Size 17 29-inch circular needles

-1 stitch marker (I just used a piece of yarn tied into a loop)

The first thing you do (as with most knitting patterns) is make a nice little slip knot.

Now you start casting on. Use a nice stretchy cast-on method. I like to use the knitting cast-on. I'll give you a description here but if you want to watch a video you can click here.

With your slip knot on the left hand needle, insert the tip of the right hand needle into the loop from the left to the right.

Hold both needles in you left hand so that you can use your right hand to wrap the yarn around the right needle from the back to the front.

Use the right hand needle to pull the yarn though.

Slip this new loop of yarn from the right needle to the left needle. Now you have two stitches cast on!

Keep going in this fashion until you have 70 stitches on the needle. Remember to cast on loosely, don't tug on the yarn.

Now switch the needles between your hands so that the needle with the working yarn is in your right hand. Place your stitch marker on the right needle.

Now it's time to get down to business! For the first row, purl all stitches. Then, when you get back around to the stitch marker, slip the marker from the left to the right needle and knit all stitches. Alternate between purl rows and knit rows until your piece measures about 6 1/2" from cast-on edge. Remove stitch marker and loosely bind off all stitches. Weave in edges and you're done!!!

I'll show you photos of my finished product tomorrow when the sun (hopefully) comes out.

Bye!

Want to see the finished product? Click here.

Want it with a hood? Click here.

Circled

Oh, circle scarves. They are all over the place right now.

Most experienced knitters can probably whip one of these up without any help. But I figure there are probably some beginner knitters out there who would like a little help... right? So I'm working on a tutorial right now to show you how to make a nice chunky circle scarf. It will be here for you on Monday so check back then!

P.S. The scarf is shown doubled in this photo. When it's just wrapped once it goes down to just around my belly button.